March 2001

I was able to track this down to a bug in the
Dock. It seems when you drag an application to the Dock,
it stores it as a symbolic link. Somehow, launching a
Classic mail app this way from the Dock causes it to do
something odd when the Classic mail app quits: something
is not cleaned up (maybe a connection not closed or a
file handle left dangling), and when it is launched
again, the Dock freezes. However, storing an alias to the
application in the Dock seems to work around what ever
has gone bad. Launching the alias does not cause the Dock
to freeze on subsequent launches.

So, now I have Outlook in both 9.1 and Classic under X
working satisfactorily.

I want to corroborate Matthew Smith's report of
problems reading Exchange Server mail via IMAP
configuration with OS X Mail. Strangely, I cannot access
all of my folders (including my inbox) when logging in at
work on a G4 533 Tower, but can access my inbox on the
same account at home with my PowerBook G3 400. Both
machines connect wirelessly.

Ashley Laurent also announced that
Neon Software will sell VPCom for Mac and Windows to
"enterprise customers." Neon has not announced pricing.
Ashley Laurent will continue to sell VPCom to original
equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

First: The Office bug that causes hangs...remember that one?
It's been fixed. Anyone who needs it can contact support@prosofteng.com.
This is called version 5.14. I want anyone who needs it to have
it as soon as possible.

Second: The development contract with Novell that will
permit us to develop an IP client has been signed by us and is
on it's way back to Novell now.

I contacted Prosoft support and received the updated client
nearly immediately.

This new version is a change from Prosoft's previous position,
which was "there is no plan to
update the IPX client." The new contract with Novell is probably
the cause of Prosoft's change of heart.

MeetingMaker 7.0, major new version of X-platform group
calendar. March 30, 2001 -- MeetingMaker, Inc., has release
MeetingMaker
7.0, a new version of the cross-platform group scheduling and
calendar software. The new version is for servers and clients for Mac
OS, Windows 95/98/NT/2000, and Sun Solaris. New features include:

Support of LDAP directory services

Publishing of calendars as HTML (web pages)

E-mail and pager notification

A new messaging system

Time zone management

Enhanced user interface

Enhanced contact manager and to-do list

A Java client

TeamAgenda 3.1.12-- a bug fix update. March 30, 2001 --
Teamsoft Inc. has released TeamAgenda
3.1.12, a minor upgrade to the cross-platform group scheduling
software for Windows and Mac OS.(Upgrade is free.) The new version
fixes some problems with e-mail notifications and other bugs.

VPC OS X update won't be free. March 29, 2001 -- Steven
Palm reports that Connectix told him that Virtual PC 4 for Mac OS X
will not be an update for Virtual PC 4 for OS 9.x, but will be
considered a new product. Owners of VPC 4 be offered VPC 4 for OS X
for a special price, which has not yet been announced.

This is not surprising, as VPC for OS X is another rewrite of the
product, and not a simple "carbonization." VPC 4 does a lot of
unorthodox things with RAM and the hardware that other Mac
applications don't do, which is why it doesn't run in the OS X
Classic mode.

SuSE Linux 7.1 PowerPC Edition to ship in a few weeks.
March 30, 2001 -- SuSE Linux announced that it would release
SuSE
Linux 7.1 PowerPC Edition (US $50) in April. The company said the
new version improved USB support and sound, and would ship on 6 CDs,
including 1000 applications. (Version 7.0 ships on 5 CDs.)

Web tutorials for moving fonts between Windows and Mac.
March 30, 2001 -- A web site called Mike's
Sketchpad has a number of tutorial for converting font files and
graphics files between Mac and Windows. The site is targeted for
graphics designers. (Thanks to Bob Maguire for the tip.)

The problem is not really with the Outlook 2001 beta, but
with the hosts file. I have just duplicated the problem with
Outlook 8.2.2 and OS X final release. OS X creates a TCP/IP config
in OS 9.1 called "classic."

George W Raduano also found the hosts file to be the problem. In
his case, he got it to work just by deleting it:

I had the same exact problem when I installed OS X. I
discovered it through a process of elimination. After eliminating
the "hosts" file, everything worked just fine. I worked through
the problem with Apple tech support and alerted them to my find.

Although I don't have the same problem
that Leland Jory has with the Outlook beta on OS X I have some
interesting ones that may be related to the hosts file and how X
modifies the OS 9.1 system folder.

After installing OS X, the Outlook Beta would not work when I
rebooted under OS 9.1: claimed that it couldn't find the server. I
reinstalled the beta under 9.1, and it allowed me to set up a
profile and seemed to find the server during the check phase, but
when I actually tried to use Outlook, again the server was not to
be found.

Interestingly, the Outlook beta does work in the Classic
environment under OS X, but only once per session. If I launch it,
do some work, and quit, then relaunch, the beta hangs, freezing
the dock completely.

Even restarting the system doesn't work; I actually have to
press the reset button on my G4. (Interestingly, I see the same
pattern trying to run Eudora 4.3 in the Classic environment: one
launch per session).

I am having the following problem with OS X's mail
program and Exchange Server. I attempt to connect to the Exchange
Server as an IMAP server. Some mailboxes I am able to read
messages from, but if they have other folders within them, then I
can't read messages... I can just open the enclosed folders.

VPC 4 problems with Win NT. March 29, 2001 -- Jonadab
Torres is having problem with Windows NT on Virtual PC 4. Despite the
fact that the Virtual PC 4 manual says that Windows NT is one of the
operating systems that Virtual PC 4, Connectix is now telling him
that VPC 4 does not support Windows NT, and that there is a problem
with VPC Additions and Windows NT. Torres received this message from
Connectix tech support:

In regards to the NT additions. This is a know issue. Our
developers are working on a fix for this and it shall be posted on
our Connectix website as soon as possible.

Torres describes the problem:

I just had another very length conversation with Jim (VPC
1st level tech support). He told me again that they in no way
shape or form support Win NT and that any problem I might be
having is not there problem. I tried to help him appreciate that
I'm a support person also and that my questions are for 25 VPC
users. This didn't seem to help, he just continued to say that he
doesn't support Win NT.

The problem that I'm calling about is a long standing one for
me. Even though I've just come to prove to my self what is causing
it. After installing VPC Additions for NT I'm now having a
problem. The system begins acting like I've depressed the right
mouse button and I'm holding it down with out let up. When this
happens the only thing I can do is move the mouse off the VPC
screen and restart using the keyboard.

A Win NT Event that comes up when the right mouse button begins
to stick.

In an attempt to correct the problem I switched this driver out
with a standard Microsoft Driver, the problem went away but I lost
the ability to move freely from the VPC window to the Mac
desktop.

Microsoft ships Win Media Player 7 for Mac, version 8 for
Windows March 29, 2001 -- Microsoft released the shipping version
of Windows
Media Player 7 for Macintosh and Windows Media Player 8 for
Windows (see ZDNet
story). Microsoft says that WMP 8 for Windows has 30 percent
improved quality over version 7.

HELIOS servers for Win, Mac clients to run on Mac OS X.
March 26, 2001 -- HELIOS Software GmbH announced that all of its
server
products will be available for Mac OS X some time this summer.
(Currently, HELIOS' servers run on Unix hardware and support Mac or
Windows clients.) This includes EtherShare 2.6 (an AFP-over-IP file
server supporting Mac clients), EtherShare OPI 2.1, PCShare 3.0 (an
SMB/CIFS file sharing server for Windows clients), PDF Handshake 2
including PDF Internet Printing, and Print Preview. HELIOS also said
that its Mac programs EtherShare Admin, LANTest, Tagger, and Touch
will also be available "soon" for Mac OS X, which Apple began
shipping last weekend.

Mac OS X also works with font formats used by Microsoft
Windows. These fonts have all their data in the data fork and do
not have the additional resources found in Macintosh fonts. Mac OS
X works with these font formats:

MS UAM 5.0.7 and continued failure to change passwords.
March 26, 2001 -- Brian Little is another reader who discovered that
upgrading his Macs to Microsoft version User Authentication Module
5.0.7 doesn't fix the problem of changing passwords for access to
Windows 2000 Servers:

Just to follow on, the 5.0.7 upgrade still doesn't let us
change passwords, either. We're still using Outlook Web Access.
Regarding the supposition that Kerb5 v. NTLM is causing the
problem, I don't think that's it. You have to very specifically
disable NTLM, and we've not done that here, because we still have
NT clients and servers active on campus. Our setup is "Prefer
Kerb5, default to NTLM, then default to Cleartext." Still no luck
with the UAM, though.

TIP: Orinoco/Airport card and Intel Pro/Wireless. March 26,
2001 -- Chris Dollmont sent in a tip about configuring and Orinoco
wireless card to work on a Mac with an Intel wireless network:

The Intel Pro/Wireless WAP only allows a hexadecimal
password for its WEP. Both the Orinoco control panel and the
Airport control panel expect a password as an ASCII string. Here's
what I've discovered:

1) On the Orinoco control panel, precede the string of hex
digits with '0x'. If your Intel password is 3131313131, enter it
as 0x3131313131.

2) On the Airport control panel, precede the string with a '$'.
If your Intel password is 3131313131, enter is as $3131313131.

3) If you are using an Orinoco card because you have an older
PowerBook (like me), you can use the Airport drivers and control
panel (Airport cards are Orinoco Silver relabelled). The Airport
drivers are a better choice because you get the control strip
application and scripting abilities for easily switching between
settings.

Dell TrueMobile 1150 and AirPort. March 26, 2001 -- Jim
Hines reports success with using a Dell TrueMobile 1150 wireless PC
card with AirPort. You can read about it on our Cross-platform
AirPort special report page.

Solutions update: another KVM for sharing keyboards and
monitors. March 26, 2001 -- We've added the Hawking
Technology 2 Port USB KVM to our list of switches that can be
used to share a single keyboard and monitor with a Mac and a PC. This
is is on our Keyboard
Solutions page. Alan Ristow recommends the Hawking:

The Hawking
2 Port USB KVM is very similar to the Iogear MiniView; as far as
I can tell, the only major difference is that the Iogear unit allows
sharing of four USB devices, while the Hawking unit only allows
sharing of only two. The Hawking unit seems to be $10-20 cheaper,
depending on where you look.

Mac OS X 10.0 ships tomorrow: Mac goes Unix. March 23, 2001
-- Tomorrow, Apple will ship
Mac OS X 10.0, the first version of its next generation and
long-awaited operating system. At a press briefing on March 21 at the
Apple campus in Cupertino, CA, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said this first
release was targeted at "earlier adopters." Apple admits that there
are pieces still missing from the operating system, including support
for DVD playback and CD-RW writing, which Apple says will be released
during the next few months.

Though there is little new in the way of Windows integration in OS
X 10.0, but there is quite a bit of Unix in the Mac system, which
uses BSD Unix as it's core OS running on a Mach kernel. Jobs
predicted that by they end of the year, Mac OS X would be largest
Unix distribution in terms of volume, as well as the largest Java 2
distribution.

We asked Jobs about the extent of BSD Unix that is available to
the user OS X user. He described OS X as a robust and complete Unix
environment. BSD in OS X provides uses with an FTP server and an
Apache web server which can be turned on in the Sharing pane of the
System Preferences window. The Terminal application, which provides a
command line shell, is installed in the Applications/Utilities/
directory. Avie Tevanian, Apple's Senior Vice President of Software
Engineering, said that most Linux software should run unaltered on OS
X after a recompile. A server based on Mac OS X 10.0 will ship next
quarter.

Connectix announces Virtual PC for Mac OS X for summer
ship. March 23, 2001 -- Connectix announced that it would ship
Virtual PC for Mac OS X this summer. In a press statement, Connectix
Vice President of Marketing Mitchell Cipriano said "We believe Mac OS
X is the ideal platform on which to build a better Virtual PC."

PPTP VPN client for Mac OS X. March 23, 2001 -- pptp
for Mac OS X is a free (open source) PPTP client for Mac OS X and
Virtual Private Networks and some ADSL connects. It is a Cocoa
application available with an Aqua interface or a command line
interface.

Sharity for OS X: a SMB/CIFS file sharing client for Windows
networks. March 23, 2001 -- Objective Development's Sharity
2.4 Beta 8 is an SMB/CIFS file sharing client for Windows
networks that runs on Mac OS X. (By comparison, Thursby's DAVE is an
SMB/CIFS client for Mac OS 8.x/9.x.) The developer notes that there
are some problems with Mac OS X Public Beta that it did not expect to
occur with Mac OS X 10.0.

Still unable to change passwords on W2K using UAM 5.0.7.
March 23, 2001 -- John Lascurettes upgraded to his Microsoft UAM (Mac
software for secure login to Windows servers), but is still having
problems with changing passwords:

I installed the UAM 5.0.7 and was unable to change my
password. I get the following error:

The Microsoft User Authentication Method encountered
an error. Unable to change password: your new password was not
accepted by the server.

After sitting down with our lone IT administrator, we came to
the following conclusions. Due to some pretty nasty hacker attacks
we've had in the last year, only strong encryption is allowed by
the Windows users in the office to change their passwords on the
Windows 2000 server (Kerberos if I remember correctly). If the UAM
is only using low-level LM authentication (as quoted by Brad
Judy ), it isn't able to authenticate a new password because
it isn't able to use an encryption level that is secure enough.
Does this sound correct?

If it is correct, I'd be curious to know if anyone has any
ideas for a work around without compromising the security required
to change the password. For now, Mac users have been using a guest
W2K station to log in and change their passwords. We have had
hackers change the administrator password when permissions and
security were set too low; so allowing LM authentication for
changing passwords is not an option.

Windows users can access files of iTools Mac users. March
23, 2001 -- Users of Apple's free iTools
service can make share files available to Windows users on the Web.
iTools provides up to 20 MB of server space on the Internet for
travelers or for sharing. Mac users can access iTools content through
a Macintosh interface that mounts a volume on the desktop. At the
iTools web site, iTools users have the option to present the shared
information using an http web interface.

Another SkyLINE driver update from Farallon. March 23, 2001
-- After posting driver update a little over a week ago, Farallon has
posted SkyLINE
Wireless Driver Installer 2.4 for its PC Card and PCI card for
Macs. The new version fixes some bugs.

(The MS UAM is an optional Mac program installed on Macs to
provide a more secure connection to a Windows network, providing
encrypted authentication to Windows 2000 Servers running Services for
Macintosh.)

TIP: How to add MS Server/UAM to Keychain. March 20, 2001
-- A reader named Jim sent us a procedure for saving a MS UAM 5.0.5
password to the Mac OS 9 Keychain:

The Windows 2000 Server administrator needs to:

open Computer Management,

right click on Shared Folders,

select Configure file Server for Macintosh,

and check the "Allow workstations to save password" box.

Advice for getting Compaq iPaq on an AirPort network. March
20, 2001 -- David Karlsson is using a Compaq iPaq Pocket PC on an
AirPort network. Here's how he did it:

I was able to get an Ipaq with the Compaq WL1000 card
working together with an AirPort Base Station. The trick is to use
(on the Ipaq side) a setting called "infrastructure" in the cards
config menu. The other two options in that section is 802.11 AdHoc
and one I can´t recall.

StuffIt Deluxe 6.0.1 adds Mac OS X features, Entourage
improvement. March 20, 2001 -- Aladdin has released StuffIt
Deluxe 6.0.1 (US $79.95, update free), an upgrade of its
cross-platform compression/encoding utility for Macintosh. (The
StuffIt for Windows has not been upgraded at this time.) The new
version, which runs on Mac OS 8 and 9 and OS X, adds some new
features, including:

Decompression of GnuTar archives, a Unix compression format.
In OS X, this support will maintain file and user permissions

Support of symbolic links, an OS X feature that allows
packaged applications to be Stuffed and un-Stuffed without any
data loss

Palm bundles DataViz editor for Word, Excel. March 20, 2001
-- Palm, Inc. will be bundling DataViz' Documents
To Go Professional Edition software with the new
Palm m500 and m505 handheld computers. Documents To Go lets you
view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and other documents on the
Palm.

Text Cleaner 2.0. March 20, 2001 -- Studio 405 has released
TextCleaner 2.0
(US $79, upgrades US $39), a Macintosh utility for converting text
problems between platforms and other text conversion tasks. The new
version increases performance by up to 300 percent, improves cleaning
of Quark Xpress documents while retaining style information. It also
adds support for user-defined cleaning operations and unlimited
presets that you can export and import, and use in custom DropClean
applets.

Taylor Design releases Textpresso 1.8.1. March 20, 2001 --
Taylor Design has released Textpresso
1.8.1 (US $29.95, free upgrade), a text editor for Mac OS that
can convert between Mac and PC text. The new version now includes 190
filters, adding filters for HTML tables, managing C++ source code,
and working with FileMaker Pro text exports.

New Mac Telnet client revision adds AppleScript. March 19,
2001 -- Kevin Grant has posted MacTelnet
3.0 Alpha 20, a new revision to the telnet client for Mac. The
new version adds AppleScript support, improvements in terminal
windows, and bug fixes.

Another problem with MS UAM 5.0.5--OS 9 Keychain access.
March 19, 2001 -- John Lascurettes reports of another problem with
the Microsoft UAM 5.0.5 for logging into Windows servers:

[I am] having a problem with Microsoft UAM 5.0.5
and Apple's Keychain. I am running OS 9.1 so I have the latest
AppleShare software - but every time I mount a Windows 2000 Server
volume, the "add to Keychain" is grayed out.

I tried to add manually by taking the mounted directory and
dragging to my Keychain items window. That added an item to
Keychain access, but when I try accessing that volume again, it
accesses the Keychain but still brings up the UAM dialog and
requests my password.

Also, what was mounted was "volume B" which lives on "server
A", but the Keychain item is named "server A" in Keychain access.
Is there something I'm missing here? What should I point my MS
administrator toward?

PcConverter 2.0, cross-platform text manipulator for Mac.
March 19, 2001 -- Vampire Software has upgraded ASCII Converter to
PcConverter
2.0 (US $20) Mac utility for converting text and RTF files
between Windows, Unix, and Macintosh. It will convert ASCII
characters and let you build your own conversion tables. Vampire says
"you can use it to process your custom database files or to automate
the conversion of text files to html." (For more file converter
software for Macs and Windows, see our File
Translation Solutions page.

PCMacLan works with AirPort. March 19, 2001 -- A reader
named Janie reports that she has the same setup as Roy Marquez and
had the same problems with DAVE on
AirPort networks. However, she also reports that Miramar's
PC MACLAN does work on the same AirPort network.

Oracle on VPC advice. March 19, 2001 -- Macintouch
has a discussion of running Oracle Client on Virtual PC.

X-platform medical billing software upgrade. March 19, 2001
-- The d.i.d. Circle Organization released Medical
Billing Circle 6.6 (starting at US $960) for Mac OS and Windows.
The new version includes "over 40 major new features and many smaller
improvements," according to the company. Some of these improvements
are in the areas of cross platform graphics, e-mail, import/export,
and cross indexing of diagnoses and services.

Fix for problem: NT crashes when Mac copies files. March
19, 2001 -- Tom McDonald read our report of a problem with NT
crashing when Macs copy files to an SFM module. He found a
KnowledgeBase article , which he says fixed the problem.

Just read this string while looking for another problem.
I recently went through this same odd problem with an HP NetServer
E60, NT4, SP4.

I had run this machine for awhile with no sign of this problem.
Recently I reformatted and reinstalled the OS creating a partition
for the OS and another for the shared SFM directories. Immediately
after that any time I would copy a group of files or a large file
from a Mac to the server it would drop into a Blue Screen.

To make a long story short I had one obscure error message
about the page file which led me to Microsoft's Knowledge base.
There I found the following information.

This
tech note explains about a damaged paging file and how to fix it.
It was titled "STOP OxA or Ox1E screens caused by damaged paging
file." I have not had the problem since. Although there could be
multiple causes for dropping into a Blue Screen I thought this might
help someone else.

Sony and Connectix join forces in PlayStation emulation.
March 16, 2001 -- In a case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em,"
Sony
and Connectix announced that they have joined forces to create
emulation solutions for PlayStation, and perhaps more. Since 1999,
Sony has lost nearly all of its legal challenges against Connectix
for Virtual Game Station, a software emulator of Sony's
PlayStation.

Under the new agreement between the two companies, the Connectix
will offer the current version of Virtual Game Station for Mac OS and
Windows until June 30, 2001. The press release said that:

Sony Computer Entertainment will acquire from Connectix
all assets related to the VGS emulation technology...All further
emulation development for the PlayStation game console will
proceed under the auspices of the joint agreement.

This could mean that the PlayStation game console and its software
emulator equivalent on Mac and PC will be developed together; Instead
of reverse engineering, the emulator can include Sony code, and
therefore become more compatible with more PlayStation games.
Connectix President Roy McDonald hinted at moving beyond the game
market. "We believe that this collaboration can lead to improved
development tools, innovative consumer products and productive
enterprise solutions."

More on the Microsoft UAM 5.05 password problem. March 16,
2001 -- Igor Zagatsky is the latest reader to confirm the problem
with Microsoft UAM 5.0.5 (for use with logging onto Windows servers
from Macs):

We have the same problem ("Miscellaneous AFP error").
Highly annoying! This does not happen with UAM 5.0.4 that comes
with Windows 2000, only with 5.0.5 that is on the MS Website.
However the 5.0.5 version seems to be more reliable in general
with the exception of the password problem. Sure would be nice if
this would get fixed.

Suggestion for fonts/apps stored on NT. March 16, 2001 --
Responding to yesterday's item on backing up Mac fonts and apps
stored on NT Server SFM volumes, developer Patrick Peccatte has a few
suggestions:

1. NT users can use standard Explorer in order to
copy/backup Macintosh files. This works perfectly even if the file
size displayed by NT is zero. This is possible since SP3 or SP4 (I
do not remember exactly) because the low level API used by
Explorer to copy files have been modified to manage all associate
streams during copy operation.

2. Other tools using these API (like my Idem replication
software) are also able to correctly backup Mac files (even fonts
or Mac programs).

I add that all my tools are now edited and distributed by a new
company called Soft
Experience.

Farallon posts new drivers for wireless SkyLINE card. March
16, 2001 -- The Farallon division of Proxima has posted
Mac SkyLINE drivers 2.3 (free) for the wireless SkyLINE PC Card
and SkyLINE 11 Mb Wireless PCI Card. The new version adds stability
and includes a firmware upgrade for the cards. Also available are the
Windows
SkyLINE PC Card drivers 1.3 for Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000. The cards
work in both PCs and Macs.

Compaq to release "ultra dense" servers. March 16, 2001 --
A ZDNet
story says that later this year Compaq will introduce a server
solution code named QuickBlade that could hold up to 300 CPUs in a
single 6-foot rack.

Another AFP-IP file server for NT: Xinet FullPress. March
16, 2001 -- Stewart Ayers points out that Xinet's FullPress
OPI Server for Windows NT includes an AFP-over-IP (AppleShare IP
compatible) file server. Xinet is a longtime developer of AFP servers
for Unix, KA-Share,
but it doesn't make an NT version of just the AFP server. Ayers was
wondering if anyone know how FullPress for NT compares
performance-wise with Windows 2000 SFM, ExtremeZ-IP, MacServerIP. If
you have any idea, please let
us know.

Cross-platform script trigger for FileMaker. March 16, 2001
-- Troi Automatisering has released Activator
Plug-in 1.2 for FileMaker 5 ( US $89 per user) a plug-in that
lets you trigger FileMaker scripts on Macs and PCs over a
network.

DAVE gets Keychain support. March 15, 2001 -- Thursby
Software Systems released DAVE 2.5.2 (US $149), a new version of Mac
software that enables Macs to share files and printers on PC
networks.

OS 9 Keychain support

A new setup assistant for easier configuration

Improved DHCP handling, a special feature that allows
virtually automatic setup on corporate networks and a

new installer feature designed to better support non-English
systems.

The update
is free for owners of DAVE 2.5 and 2.5.1 and for those who have a
support contract. For owners of older versions, the upgrade is US
$79.95.

DAVE over AirPort problems due to NAT, name resolution.
March 15, 2001 -- Carl Ketterling of Thursby Software has
responded to our reports of problems with DAVE
on AirPort networks. First, he points out that NAT in the AirPort
Base Station causes name resolution problems. Thursby also recommends
using a fixes IP address in the Mac when using DAVE on an AirPort
connection. You can read Ketterling's response on our DAVE
special report page.

Macintosh files have both a Data Fork and a Resource
Fork. Windows NT gets the file size info from the Data Fork. If no
information is available in the Data Fork, the file size displayed
is zero. Both Macintosh executable files and font files have 0
bytes listed in the Data Fork, so their size is displayed as 0
bytes.

Bill Mansur points out that backing up font files with zero size
are not recoverable (as would be data files).

More on Microsoft UAM/password problem. March 14, 2001 -- A
couple of readers report having the same problem with Microsoft UAM
5.0.5 when logging on to a Windows server, which we described
yesterday (below). Brian Little reported:

Same setup as your reported problem, but we are
COMPLETELY unable to change passwords, numbers or not. We have
been for months...We've come to rely on Outlook Web Access's
password change facility almost exclusively.

Group Logic ships ExtremeZ-IP 2.01 for Win servers. March
14, 2001 -- Group Logic has shipped ExtremeZ-IP
2.0.1, a "maintenance release" of the AFP-over-IP file and print
services for Windows NT/2000 servers. (ExtremeZ-IP is an alternative
to Microsoft Services for Macintosh.) Improvements in version 2.0.1
include:

Performance enhancements

Optimization for Windows 2000

Faster Sherlock searches

Remote administration

Better integration with other Macintosh and Windows
applications

More on DAVE and AirPort problem. March 14, 2001 -- A
couple of readers responded to our report of a problem with DAVE
on AirPort networks. Michael LoRusso said he had the problem and
found two workarounds: creating aliases of the mounted volumes when
connectied via Ethernet, and using the mount manually option. Willem
Schijf recommends upgrading to DAVE Client 2.5.7 and NetBIOS 2.5p6.
You can read both reports on our DAVE
special report page.

Tip: Orinoco/PC setup with WEP on AirPort Base Station.
March 14, 2001 -- Mike Sullivan sent this item about using a Lucent
Orinoco Silver card on Apple AirPort Base Station / WEP On:

It is no longer necessary to enter a '0' (zero) prior to
the Equivalent Network Password key copied from the Apple AirPort
Admin Utility / Base Station / Equivalent Network Password menu.
Just click the 'Use Alphanumeric Characters (0-9, a-z)' radio
button and enter the 10-digit key given in the Apple dialog box.

This is with Orinoco Client Manager Variant 1, Version 1.18
software on the PC.

MacDisk 6: PC utility for Mac media. March 14, 2001 --
Pierre Duhem has released MacDisk
6, a utility to mount and manage all kinds of Macintosh media on
a PC. Duhem describes version 6 as "major release." The new version
offers a new user interface that looks like the Windows Explorer and
new and rewritten functions. Duhem says:

MacDisk now replaces our former products MacDisk and
MacScuzzy, and offer in particular many features for network
administrators managing NTFS/SFM volumes (in place file renaming,
and the like).

Mac OS X golden doesn't support browsing of some 3rd party
AFP-IP servers. March 13, 2001 -- MacWindows has learned from a
source that the golden master of Mac OS X does not support Name
Binding Protocol (NBP) lookups, used to browse for AFP file servers
over TCP/IP. This could mean that for many AFP (Apple File Protocol)
servers, users will need to type in IP addresses in order to access
the server. However, once an IP address has been typed in, OS X keeps
it, so you can select it from a pulldown menu the next time you log
on.

Mac OS X Public
Beta also does not support NBP. Apple refers to NBP being used
for AFP-on-AppleTalk servers (such as Windows NT 4 SFM), but some AFP
over TCP/IP also use NBP to enable the server to appear in the
Chooser.

Apple is calling the first version of OS X, to be released on
March 24, "Mac OS X 10.0."

Adobe announces Adobe Acrobat 5 for Mac and Windows. March
13, 2001 -- Adobe announced yesterday that Adobe
Acrobat 5 (US $249, upgrade US $99) for Windows and Mac would
ship during the second quarter in the US and Canada. (See also this
Adobe
press release.) The new features of the cross-platform PDF editor
and generator is aimed at business collaboration. The new features
include:

Web and database integration based WebDistributed Authoring
and Versioning (WebDAV) and ODBC for simultaneously sharing
comments on Adobe PDF files from within a browser.

Support for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) for
integrating metadata and forms data in Adobe PDF file with backend
systems.

Support for digital signatures

Reader problem with Windows server and MS UAM 5.0.5. March
13, 2001 -- Stephen Chiang reports this problem with the Microsoft
UAM when logging on to a Windows server:

Running UAM 5.0.5 on a PowerBook G3 Bronze, OS 9.0.4.
When user tries to change his password, it will work, however if
there are any numbers in his new password, I get an error dialog
that says: "The Microsoft User Authentication method encountered
an error, a misc. AFP error has occurred."

WebMerge 1.5 X-platform web database publishing tool. March
12, 2001 -- Fourth World today released WebMerge
1.5 (US $69; free upgrade), a tool for Mac OS 8/9 and Windows
95/98/NT/2000 that creates static Web pages from database files.
Version 1.5 adds support for databases that export in tab-delimited
export formats, including FileMaker Pro and Microsoft Access. Other
improvements include support for Apple Events on Macs, the ability to
generate links from URLs in a database field, and better generation
of HTML code. WebMerge generates standard web pages from databases
data, and does not require you to add software to the web server.

Farallon SkyLINE in Win 2000 works with AirPort. March 12,
2001 -- Max Dichter had good results getting his Windows 2000 PC on
an AirPort wireless network when you installed a Farallon Skyline 11
card in the PC, as long as he didn't use encrypted mode. You can read
his report on our Cross-platform
AirPort special report page.

DAVE and AirPort problem. March 12, 2001 -- Roy Marquez is
having a problem getting DAVE to work on an AirPort network:

I got a G4 desktop and a PC laptop that uses a SkyLINE PC
card. They both play "together" when used with my AirPort Base
Station; they both can grab an IP address from DHCP and use NAT to
access the Internet. Both machines can surf at the same time when
I use the modem on the Base Station.

However, I really need to share file between the two machines.
I thought Dave might be my solution here...Dave 2.5.1 stalls just
when the Finder is about to load completely.

Marquez also wondered if there was some special DAVE configuration
needed for AirPort networks. If you have any advice, please pass
it our way.

Another report of AirPort connectivity problems. March 9,
2001-- Another reader describes connectivity problems with Windows
accessing AirPort Base Station. The reader said that Linux worked
better. Also reported were problems with AirPort's NAT Internet
gateway and the Ethernet port. You can read this report and the
others on our Cross-platform AirPort
special report page.

Apple posts tech info on AirPort 1.3. March 9, 2001-- Apple
has posted several technical articles on some of the new features of
AirPort 1.3 software, which it released earlier this week:

Aladdin names European distributor for StuffIt for Windows.
March 9, 2001-- Aladdin
Systems has named Softline
AG of Offenburg, Germany as its exclusive European distributor of
StuffIt for Windows, the cross-platform compression/encoding utility.
Softline will also be a distributor for the international versions of
other Aladdin products for Windows and Macintosh.

Intel to cut 5000 employees. March 9, 2001-- A ZDNet
story describes an announcement from Intel that it will cut 5000
of its 86,000 employees due to a 15 percent drop in revenue.

How to configure StarBand satellite for Mac and Win. March
8, 2001-- Macworld has an article
by Christopher Breen that details the software and hardware
configuration of the StarBand Internet satellite connection with Macs
and Windows PCs. It's a very detailed article complete with 8 photos
and nearly a dozen Windows and Mac OS screen shots. (For more on
StarBand, we have some reader reports of using satellite connections
with cross-platform AirPort networks on our
cross-platform AirPort special report.)

Suggestion for sporadic AirPort connectivity. March 8,
2001-- Scott Sorensen responds to our reader report of March 6
(below) about a reader whose PC connection to AirPort Base Station
drops out. Sorensen has seen this with a Mac:

This problem is not unique to Windows 98. I had my blue
and white G3 hooked up to a hub, which was hooked up to a base
station. I too, had the problem of sporadic connectivity. I think
the problem is with the Base Station software in this particular
configuration. I have since installed a Farallon Skyline PCI/PC
card combo in my G3 and it works just fine. No more wires!

Mac OS X goes golden. March 8, 2001-- Apple issued a
press
release yesterday saying that Mac OS X had gone gold master has
been released to manufacturing for production. ("Gold master" usually
means that no more changes will be made for a release.) Apple plans
to ship OS X on March 24 for US $129.

Miramar adds IP support to PC MACLAN for Win 95/98/Me.
March 7, 2001-- Miramar
Systems released a PC MACLAN for Windows 95/98/Me a new version
of it's AFP software that includes two-way cross-platform file/print
sharing over TCP/IP. (US $199; upgrades US $69-$99 direct from
Miramar Systems.) The previous version of PC MACLAN for Windows 95/98
did not support Windows ME and worked over AppleTalk only. This
version supports both AppleTalk and TCP/IP, like Miramar's previously
released version for Win NT/2000. Features include:

IP Client and IP Server for faster file sharing with Macs

Bi-directional printer support, including support for
non-PostScript printers

Shrinking VPC 4 drives by wiping free drive space. March 7,
2001-- Connectix
Knowledge Base article 4516 describes an "advanced" method of
getting the dynamic hard disk image to shrink. The method involves
using Norton SystemWorks (part of Norton Utilities for Windows) from
within Windows 95, 98, or ME to "wipe" the free space. The article
says "Free space will have been reclaimed and the drive will be
smaller by the corresponding amount."

AirPort 1.3 adds PPPoE, WiFiTM, AppleScript. March 6,
2001-- Yesterday, Apple has released AirPort
1.3, the latest version of software for the AirPort Base Station
and Mac AirPort clients. The new version adds a number of new
features, including:

Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) for some DSL
connections

AirPort problem with Win 98. March 6, 2001-- Doug Harris is
having a problem with one PC on an AirPort wireless network:

I'm using the Airport Base Station as the network access
point to connect to my dialup Mindspring/Earthlink account. The
phone line is plugged into the base station. I have an
Orinoco/WaveLAN silver card in my Dell laptop which communicates
with the Base Station under Windows ME and Linux.

The base station is connected by a short cat-5 cable to a small
Linksys hub. Also hanging off of this hub is my desktop machine,
which is also dual boot -- Win 98 and Linux.

Everything works fine, except Windows 98 on the desktop. It
will work fine for 3-5 minutes, connecting through the base
station to the outside world. But then it seems to forget how to
use its gateway. I can still ping the base station and the laptop.
Typing "route print" in a command window shows the same routing
tables. If I walk away from the desktop for 20-30 min., it will
work again when I return, but again only for 3-5 minutes.

FWB discontinues SoftWindows emulator for Mac. March 5,
2001-- FWB Software has announced that it is discontinuing
SoftWindows 98 for Mac, the PC emulator. FWB will continue to
provide e-mail technical support for until May 31st, 2001. FWB will
continue to sell Real PC, the same emulator which comes with DOS.

SoftWindows was created by Insignia Solutions, and was the first
PC emulator for Macintosh. It was originally called SoftPC, but
Insignia changed the name when Apple launched PowerPC Macs. Insignia
sold SoftWindows and Real PC to FWB two years ago, but FWB never
released a major upgrade. In this time, Connectix has had several
major upgrades to Virtual PC, the major competing emulator.
SoftWindows was faster and had more features than Virtual PC versions
1 and 2, but VPC 3 caught up, and VPC 4 clearly surpassed SoftWindows
in speed and features. One other PC emulator remains, Blue
Label Power Emulator from Lismore Software. Like Real PC, BLPE
comes with DOS.

In Windows NT 4.0, this is because of architectural
restraints imposed by AppleTalk. In Windows 2000, SFM is not
supported because SFM maintains state information in memory.
Specifically, the Macintosh volume index is located in paged pool
memory. Using SFM in clustered mode is not supported and may
result in data loss.

The article also says that a third-party SMB server may work to
support Macs on MS Cluster Services. A number of reader have already
reported that MacServerIP does work. (See our Microsoft
Cluster Services special report page.)

Keyspan ships X-platform USB sharing device. March 5,
2001-- Keyspan is now shipping a new USB
4-port Serial Adapter (US $149), which allows you to connect 4
RS232 serial devices to a single USB port. The adapter supports Linux
2.4, Windows 98/Me/2000, and Mac OS 8.6/9.x. Mac OS X support will be
available in the 3rd quarter.

Linux growth outpaces Windows in server market in Y2K.
March 5, 2001 -- CNET
reports that Linux' presence in the server market increased more
than Windows in 2000. Linux installations grew by 24 percent, while
Windows grew by 20 percent. Windows still lead in new server installs
with a share of 41 percent, with Linux at 27 percent. However, if you
combine the Linux numbers with that of Unix for the year 2000,
Linux/Unix ties the market share of Windows servers.

Microcode Solutions talks about G3s for PCs. March 2, 2001
-- Jim Drew, CEO of Microcode
Solutions sent MacWindows some information about an upcoming
PowerPC emulator product that would include a PowerPC processor for
PCs.

We are not developing the PCI card. Our software, along
with other software will be bundled with cards.

There is no information available concerning who is developing
these cards, or a release date. The cards will be used for other
secondary CPU purposes, such as games, Photoshop filters (AltiVec
support for your PC), other emulations, etc...

iFUSION is an Amiga product. It runs on PowerPC equipped
Amigas, and gives you a G3 emulation, even with a 603e
processor.

Our PC version will not have the "FUSION" namesake. I have not
yet decided what the product will be called. The PC version will
be a software emulation that can use real PowerPC hardware if
available. It is a G3 level emulation that uses OS 8.6 or later.
No ROM image is required (like previous emulators).

MetaCard, X-platform multimedia authoring tool. March 2,
2001 -- MetaCard is a
cross-platform multimedia development tool for Windows, Macintosh,
and Linux/Unix/X11. You can use it to build graphical applications
and documentation for all of these platforms. Reader Richard Gaskin
uses it, and says "it has the fastest interpreter of any xTalk I've
worked with (and I've worked with just about all of 'em, including
HyperCard, SuperCard, OMO, Director, ToolBook, Plus, and Gain
Momentum."

4D 6.7.1 update to X-platform database. March 2, 2001 --
4D, Inc., released 4th
Dimension version 6.7.1, the latest update to the cross-platform
relational database environments for Macintosh and Windows. (Upgrade
free to owners of 4D v6.7.x.) The new version adds "many improvements
and optimizations along with the addition of a few minor new web
features," and is more stable, according to 4D, Inc. (Click
here for more on the 4D v6.7.x product line.)

New TIP: syncing Casio E-125 VPC 4.0 and Mac. March 1, 2001
-- In reponse to questions on how to sync a Casio handheld with
Virtual PC running on a Mac, Jeff Owens told us how he does it:

I'm just letting you know that I have a Casio E-125 that
I sync and transfer info. Over all I don't have a problem. I could
not use USB and Connectix said PDA's are not supported. But I got
a serial cable from Casio and the Keyspan USB to serial/PDA
adapter and everything works, most of the time. Here is the setup:

You have to make sure that the USB PDA adapter is connected in
the Mac environment. Set the communication speed on the Casio to
'57600 Default. I could not get it to work at '115200. Make sure
the VPC is freshly booted. Comms doesn't seem to happen if you
used Internet Explorer or other applications before connection.
Start Activesynce. Connect the serial cable to the Casio. Now here
is where I think I have it working. Activesync will try to connect
but not find the Casio, it will ask you if you want to continue or
disconnect. click disconnect and then try to connect again under
the connect menu. I have found they will connect almost 100
percent after that.

We encountered the same problems here. We have a 400 MHz
Compaq server running Win NT 4 SP4 and have 1 G3 B/W running OS
8.6. We recently put the G3 into the network and put a 18 GB drive
into the server. This 18 GB would be used for backup space for the
Mac. Well we could copy small files but big files resulted in blue
screens and restarts. After looking at this site we also decided
to reinstall SP 4. With great result!! We can now backup onto the
18 GB without the blue screens!

Small developer working on putting G3 in PCs. March 1, 2001
-- On the Emaculation
Mac emulation forum, Jim Drew of Microcode Solutions describes
his plans to put a G3 processor in a PC along with his iFusion Mac
emulation software. He says he plans to use a low-cost G3 processor
on a PCI card along with his software to run Mac OS on a PC. No ship
date has been announced. Although there are Mac
emulators for PC currently available, all emulate the old 680x0
processor. (Thanks to Jim Watters for this item.)

Microsoft release a new corporate beta of Office XP for
Win. March 1, 2001 -- Microsoft released a beta of Office XP for
Windows (for US $19.95 ) to selected corporate clients. The release
date is set for June. A ZDNet
story describes the release, as well as the release of the final
version of BackOffice 2000 (US $3,999).

Mac OS X to be missing some pieces when it ships. March 1,
2001 -- Apple has announced that Mac OS X will be missing some
consumer pieces when it ships on March 24. Mac OS X 1.0 won't be able
to play DVD discs, and won't have OS X-native versions of iTunes and
iMovie. ZDNet
interviewed Ken Bereskin, Mac OS X Product Manager.

February 2001

AppleShare IP 6.3.3 now at Apple Store; upgrades available.
February 27, 2001 -- The Apple
Store is now shipping ASIP 6.3.3 to the public, which we
announced yesterday was shipping to developers. It is also shipping
at retail outlets. Additionally, the AppleShare
IP web site now has a page on ASIP 6.3.3. Apple says:

Exchange 2000's virtual M:\ drive.
February 27, 2001 -- Dan Schwartz of the Mac-NT
e-mail list sent this interesting note about a drive volume
created by the Exchange 2000 server and his attempt to create a
Services for Macintosh share with it:

When you install Exchange 2000, a new virtual M: drive is
created. MS claims you use it like any other drive, including
sharing folders. However, if you attempt to create an SFM (Mac)
share, an error comes back saying a Mac share "can only be created
on an NTFS volume."

Bug or "feature?"

The M: drive is neither [NTFS drive nor a FAT32 drive]:
It's a virtual drive created by Exchange "that you can treat like
any other drive." It's actually an Exchange store; and AFAIF it
behaves like a SoftPC drive container. It's mandatory that you
locate the stores on an NTFS volume; but it does not (yet) behave
like an NTFS volume vis a vis SFM. I haven't tried encryption
yet...

Thursby offers competitive TSStalk upgrade. February 27,
2001 -- Thursby Software Systems, Inc. is running a special
promotion for upgrades to TSStalk 2.0 for owners of TSStalk,
COPSTalk and PC MACLAN. (TSStalk enables Windows PCs to access Mac
shared files.) The upgrade is free for people who purchased TSStalk
95/98/NT purchased on or after October 1, 2000, or $49.95 for owners
of TSStalk 95/98/NT (purchased before October 1) and for owners of
COPSTalk or PC MACLAN. Offer ends on March 31, 2001.

More on VPC synching with Casio handheld. February 27, 2001
-- Mike Rothe would like to sync a Casio handheld device with a Mac
using Virtual PC, but says the suggestions on our Virtual PC 4
special report page don't apply:

I recently got a Casio E-125 which includes a USB sync
cradle. I am trying to use ActiveSync running on VPC 4.01 on an
Apple FireWire PowerBook for PDA synchronization. However, I just
can't establish a connection. The Casio is set to use the USB
connection and I can see the device in the VPC settings, but
ActiveSync (most recent build downloaded) just ignores the device.
I was wondering if you had any solutions or insights into this.

I have seen [the suggestion
at MacWindows] and tried it. The difference is that the
new Casio E-125 comes with the USB synching cradle to which this
solution does not apply.... I am also surprised that I have not
gotten any response from Connectix to my problem inquiry.

More questions on Mac and MS Proxy Server; Groupwise issue.
February 27, 2001 -- Tom Drolett has several questions about using
Macs and MS Proxy Server 2.0, including having problems
with FTP, as we have previously reported. As part of his report,
he says:

Can this be done without the Socks app and extension?
When we use this app, our Novell Groupwise e-mail quits.

Notes questionnaire for next Mac client. February 27, 2001
-- Lotus has a web questionnaire
is asking for input for the next Mac client for Lotus Notes for
users:

The goal of our R5 Macintosh development was to provide
comparable functionality to the Windows product, which we believe
we have delivered to our customers. With rare exceptions, the Mail
and Calendaring & Scheduling experience is identical to the
Windows product. The product is certified and supported on several
Mac OS versions up through Mac OS 9.1.

At Lotusphere 2001, we previewed the next major feature release
of the Notes Client, which we have been developing for both the
Macintosh and Windows platforms. We are currently engaged in an
effort to reevaluate our customers' need and the market demand for
a Macintosh version of this next feature release.

OS Wars: Red Hat and Microsoft. February 27, 2001 -- A
ZDNet
story describes the current war of words between Microsoft and
Red Hat regarding Windows and Linux.

AppleShare IP 6.3.3 fixes Win client bugs, improves speed.
February 26, 2001 -- Apple is offering an update to Registered
Apple developers can now download AppleShare IP 6.3.3, a new version
that fixes bugs with Windows 2000 file
sharing clients and has other SMB improvements. Damien Barrett
says the update will be soon be widely available. Barrett has tried
ASIP 6.3.3 and sent this report:

At long last, it appears that the recently updated ASIP
6.3.3 fixes the issues with Windows 2000 clients accessing an ASIP
server using the SMB protocols.

Important to us cross-platform people is the SMB fixes. Win
2000 clients can now see all items in a folder, and rename a
folder after naming it. I've also noticed that Win 2000 makes it
much easier to map the ASIP server to a drive letter.
Unfortunately, the ASIP still does not show in the Network
Neighborhood, but it's at least easier to map it.

I imagine the update will be available very soon from Apple.
It's currently available to registered Apple Developers on the
developer site. In size, it's a 24 MB download, and installation
is very similar to the ASIP 6.3.1 install where it "reinstalls"
the software rather than patching it.

MacOS 9.1 must be used with ASIP 6.3.3.

I also noticed that on a G4 Dual 450, the performance of the
server was *much* improved. I'm assuming this is due to both the
Mac OS 9.1 update and enhancements made to the ASIP software.

From the ASIP 6.3.3 readme, the fixes related to Windows clients
include:

The maximum number of simultaneous SMB connections is
increased to 500.

Another AFP client "Trash Bug" report, this time with
Linux/Netatalk. February 26, 2001 -- Blair Stilwell reports of
another instance of the Mac AFP client
"trash bug" that causes the contents of mounted volumes to appear
in the Macintosh Trash. We've has reports of this occurring with a
variety of AFP (Apple File Protocol) file servers, including Windows
NT SFM, Linux running Netatalk, MacServerIP, and AppleShare IP.
Stilwell is seeing it with Linux and Netatalk, with Mac OS 9.0.4
clients:

In some cases, an entire (22 GB) share will end up on in
the users Trash. In other cases, just a subdirectory (1GB-5GB)
ends up in the Trash.

Bug fix upgrade for GraphicConverter 4.0.4 utility.
February 26, 2001 -- Lemke software has released GraphicConverter
4.0.4, an update to the shareware cross-platform file translation
utility for Macintosh. The upgrade fixes a number of bugs with
importing and exporting in specific file formats.

VCard Happy Birthday security bug in Outlook for Windows.
February 26, 2001 -- ZDNet
reports that Outlook 97/2000 and Outlook Express 5.01 or 5.5 have
a security hole in the way the VCard electronic business cards handle
birthday data. The report says Microsoft has acknowledged the bug,
which does not affect any Outlook version for Macintosh.

Revolution X-platform development environment in beta.
February 26, 2001 -- Runtime Revolution has released Revolution
Public Beta, which it says lets you "create powerful
Internet-enabled applications and solutions which can then be
delivered on MacOS, Windows, Linux, and popular UNIX systems.
(Support for MacOS X is planned.)"

Apple cans iReview. February 26, 2001 -- Apple has
discontinued its iReview web site, which reviewed other web sites,
including MacWindows. We received this message last Friday:

Apple to ship new Mac OS X Server with Windows support.
February 23, 2001 -- Apple is readying a new
version of Mac OS X Server with an Aqua interface, which it says
"is planned for release shortly after Mac OS X." It will combine the
Windows client support of AppleShare IP with Unix-based OS X core
operating systems and networking. (Previous versions of OS X Server,
which are no longer selling at the Apple store, did not support
Windows clients.) According to Apple, the OS X Server will include
these file and print services:

Apple file services: AFP 3.0

Windows file services: SMB/CIFS

Network file system: NFS

File Transfer Protocol: FTP

Cross-platform Postscript print spooling over either TCP/IP or
AppleTalk.

Of the print server, Apple says:

Macintosh customers can use the LPR support in Print Center or
the Desktop PrinterUtility to connect to a Mac OS X Server-based
print spooler. Windows users can use their native SMB protocol to
connect to a Mac OS X Server-based print spooler.

New TIP: Reg edit for using Mac keyboard w/Win 2K. February
23, 2001 -- Ned Holbrook sent in a tip about using a Macintosh
keyboard on a Windows 2000 PC:

I use a Mac keyboard with a PC running Windows 2000 via a
USB KVM switcher and was annoyed that the keyboard had the keys in
the lower left arranged (control, alt, command) instead of a PC
keyboard's (control, windows, alt). After some investigation I
learned how to add a registry key to the PC to swap the behavior
of the Windows and Alt keys. To do this, use REGEDT32 to add a new
registry key at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/Keyboard
Layout/Scancode Map with type REG_BINARY and hex value:

00000000000000000500000038005BE038E05CE05BE038005CE038E000000000

If you can ignore the key labels, this will put the alt
key back where it belongs in relation to the space bar. I think
this will also work with Windows NT, but I haven't tried it
myself.

Suggestions for QT Beta 2 Mac problem. February 22, 2001 --
Responding to yesterday's report of the expiring QuickTime 5 Public
Preview 2 preventing Macs from booting, William Steil sent us this
suggestion:

I had exactly the same problem last week on a G3 and a G4
Solution which worked for me:

Boot with shift key down to disable extensions.

Turn off ALL of the QT, including the QuickDraw and QT Sound
Manager extensions in the Extensions Manager (Sort "by Package" so
all of the QT Ext. are grouped together. Otherwise, it's easy to
miss the ones that start with Apple and Sound, which are part of
the QT Package).

Doing this allowed the Macs to completely start up.

I then trashed all of the QT extensions. They both still booted
reliably after installing QT 5, Preview 3.

Matthew Smith also has a suggestion:

I believe the best solution for the QuickTime 5 preview 2
problem is to reinstall an old version of QuickTime. Apple offers
QuickTime 4 on their web site, or you can install QuickTime using
a custom install from the CD-ROM that came with the Mac or any OS
installer CD. Finally, installing QuickTime 5 preview 3 would
solve it as well, but you might have the expiration problem again.
I had problems when mine expired, but I was at least able to boot
and download the new version.

Reader writes software for using PC keyboard on a Mac.
February 22, 2001 -- A reader named Robin says:

I read your piece at on using
a PC keyboard on a Mac. I also have that problem, since I use
a BeOS PC and a Cube on a KVM switch. I took a slightly different
route than everyone else seems to, however, and wrote my solution
as an INIT that patches the system KeyTrans and SystemEvent traps
to swap those keys (it also turns the Menu key into an extra
escape key).

It's working well for me, so if you'd like to check it out I
put the program (and it's source) on my
web server.

Opera browser for Mac pre-beta available. February 22, 2001
-- There is now an early, pre-Beta version of the Opera web browser
available for Macintosh, Opera 5.0
for Macintosh Technology Preview 1. The site says "the next
version will be a public Beta 1 version." Opera, available for
Windows, boasts of good performance.

Virtual PC 4, which first shipped last December, is now offered
with Windows 98, Windows ME, DOS, or Windows 2000. A preinstalled
Linux bundle still hasn't shipped with VPC 4, though it was offered
with VPC 3. Connectix told MacWindows that a preinstalled Red Hat
Linux may be sold only as an OS Pack. (No OS Packs have yet
shipped.)

Suggestion for "Trash bug" with Mac AFP clients: February
21, 2001 -- Brian Frobisher has a temporary workaround for
the Mac file server client trash bug
that has been reported to occur with a variety of AFP server
platforms:

We are experiencing the "Files and Folders" in the trash
can from time to time. (OS 9.04, Windows NT 4.0 Server SP 6 SFM).

My fix is to reboot the NT server and then it seems to be good
for a long time (2 months or so without rebooting)

I have a similar and possibly related problem where privileges
seem to change on folders in the Mac Volumes and I am not sure why
this occurs. I just reapply the rules and then reboot and it stays
good for quite a while also.

Another company's AT routers can mess with your LAN.
February 21, 2001 -- Duane Wheaton was having some very odd problems
with Macs on an NT networks: Macs dropping from the network with slow
network speed, and this:

Today we found that two new servers appeared in the
Chooser during the time network access speed dropped. We
determined that the unknown servers were forcing our Macs into
their Apple Talk zone.

We suggested that it might be misconfigured or conflicting
AppleTalk routers in his NT Servers. We didn't expect this surprising
result:

Turns out it was a router problem, just not our router!

Both of our NT servers running SFM are on the same network
segment as the Mac clients so no routing was set up. Turns out
that our Internet firewall was never configured to block AppleTalk
protocols.

Another business started using a broadband ISP that happened to
be on the same Internet backbone as our ISP. (This business did
not appear to have any type of firewall in place.) Their seed
router was what caused all the havoc with our machines. Once we
blocked AppleTalk through the firewall everything immediately sped
up.

More on moving extensions for Entourage/IE extension tip.
February 21, 2001 -- Responding to yesterday's suggestion for moving
the MS Internet Library Extension for a case of Internet
Explorer freezing, Rick Wintheiser adds:

When moving the MS Internet Library, do we put it in the
same folder as the application or the folder called Office. I use
a trick before 2001 to help the different extensions work and
reduce failures. We were told to put the extensions in the Office
folder.

TechSono offers free PixMachine for Mac to owners of Windows
version. February 21, 2001 -- TechSono Engineering is offering
users of PixMachine2000 for Windows 95/98/ME a free copy of PixMachineMac.
To take advantage of the offer, send email
to TechSono by March 1st, 2001. PixMachineMac 1.0.6 downloads,
decodes, and assembles files found in Usenet newsgroups. It can also
also detect, download, and assemble MasterSplitter files created on
Windows PCs.

I have had two Macs one is a G4 and the other a G3 that
when the QuickTime 5 Public Preview 2 expired the computers would
not boot. Each would get about half way through the Extensions and
crash. If I held the shift key down the computer would boot and
work. I tried to figure out which extension was the conflict but
after about 4 hours nothing was consistently reproducible. I
wanted to know if anyone out there has seen the same issues.

The G4 was running OS 9.0.4 and the G3 was running 8.5. First
thing I did was remove the QuickTime extensions and no change it
still crashed. Then I deleted any preference files and still no
change. After all that, on the G3 I started up with the OS 9.0 CD
and did an update to the 8.5 System folder and the computer still
wouldn't boot, the only thing that worked was to do a clean
install of the OS and it worked fine. I currently have put a ban
on anyone installing the QuickTime 5 Public Beta on any of the
Macs in my office.

Get ready for more junk e-mail: Network Solutions is selling
data. February 21, 2001 -- Network Solutions Inc., a company that
registers of Internet domain names for web sites, will be selling the
data collected when companies register web domains. A Publish
story says that Network Solutions, now a subsidiary of Verisign,
will sell the database information to direct marketers.

Conflict with Entourage extensions may by an IE 5 problem, not
Outlook Beta. February 20, 2001 -- Rick Zeman Responded to our
reports of some users having conflicts with the extensions
files in Microsoft Office and Outlook Beta. In particular, Zeman
responds to our report about a case of Internet
Explorer freezing:

The Entourage team STRONGLY suggested (on the
Entourage-Talk mailing list) putting a COPY of the Microsoft
Internet Library in the Office 2001 folder where the Entourage
application resides. There's a contention issue otherwise when
Entourage and IE 5 access the library at the same time. This way,
IE uses the copy in Extensions and Entourage uses copy local to it
(remember, the Mac will use the copy local to the application
before looking to system files).

Dunno if the Outlook 2001 beta has anything to do with this as
luckily I'm in a Novell GroupWise environment, not Exchange. I
suspect that's a non-issue as it's just Entourage passing the GURL
event to IE.

Update on "Trash bug" with Mac AFP clients: ASIP added to the
list of servers. February 20, 2001 -- Warren Mason sent us a
report about a previously report problem that cause the contents of
mounted volumes to appear in the Trash of a Macintosh client on
startup. Mason also recommends a partial workaround.

We've has reports of this occurring with a variety of AFP file
servers, including Windows NT, Linux running Netatalk, and
MacServerIP--now Mason reports it with AppleShare IP 6.3.1. We've
gathered together past reports of this problem from our News Archives
and posted them together with Mason's report on our Mac
OS 9 page. However, we don't actually know that all the users are
running OS 9.0.4. If you seen this problem please
let us know, and send us the details of the Macs'
configuration.

We'd like to remind our readers that Outlook 2001 is beta (or
prerelease) software, which means that Microsoft isn't quite finished
with it. As with any beta software, use it at your own risk.

New faster build of Basilisk II. February 16, 2001 -- Jim
Watters tells us of a new, faster build of Basilisk II, an 68k
Macintosh emulator of PCs:

A new
compiled version of Basilisk II has been being developed for
the last few months. Gwenolé Beauchesne has used the
original Basilisk II source code to create a Just In Time compiled
version of Basilisk II. For the last few months it has been for
Linux only, but after many requests he has ported Basilisk II JIT
to Windows this week.

MacIPX prevents PowerBook with AirPort from waking.
February 16, 2001 -- Kim David Hawksworth reports that his
PowerBook G3 (FireWire) won't wake from sleep when MacIPX set to
Ethernet 2 on an AirPort network. You can read his report on our
NetWare special report page.If
you've seen this problem, please let
us know.

New Tip: Mac VPN connection to Windows 2000 over DSL PPPoE.
February 15, 2001 -- John DeRosa of Motorola offers a suggestion for
establishing a Macintosh virtual private network (VPN) connection
over PPPoE/DSL: use a home router. DeRosa says a home router will
pass Macintosh VPN authentication as well as do the PPPoE
authentication.

Microsoft releases SP4 for Exchange Server 5.5. February
15, 2001 -- Microsoft has released Service
Pack 4 for Exchange Server 5.5. It includes over 100 bug fixes,
including several with Outlook and Outlook Web Access. SP4 also
includes "the feature enhancements and utilities from Service Pack
3." (Thanks to Rich Pape for the tip.)

PC MacLAN test results with Win AFP-IP servers, OS X Beta
clients. February 15, 2001 -- Responding to our reader report on
OS X as a client ExtremeZ-IP,
MacServerIP, and Win2K SFM, Scott Christopher of Miramar
Systems decided to run a similar test comparing Miramar's PC
MacLAN, Windows 2000 File Server, and MacServerIP. (PC MacLAN is also
provides an AFP-over-IP file server for Windows, but is targeted at
networks with 10 and under Macs, according to Miramar.) Christopher
found that PC MacLAN moved files faster than the other two Windows
2000 SFM and MacServerIP.

However, Christopher warns "Apple is still working out a lot of
bugs in OS X and I don't expect normal performance or functionality
from OS X until it's release or OS X.I. OS X is a new OS. We at
Miramar Systems have all ready determined that there are going to be
patches needed for all PC based AFP Servers and Clients that are
going to work with OS X. I would wait until OS X is released before I
would worry about performance issues."

Basilisk II (Mac emulator for Windows) performance test
results. February 15, 2001 -- Reader Gregg E. sent us some test
results for Basilisk
II, a 68k (pre-PowerPC) Macintosh emulator for Windows. He used
the Speedometer utility that comes with Symantec's Norton Utilities
for Macintosh to show that the performance of the current Basilisk II
build has more than doubled over versions of a year ago. You can read
this report on our Mac Emulators for
PCs special report page.

Another report of extensions problem with Outlook 2001 and
Office 98. February 15, 2001 -- Kim Thesiger writes of a problem
with Outlook 2001:Mac Beta and Excel 98. The problem causes the wrong
day of the week to be displayed. Thesiger says that the problem can
be fixed by replacing the Microsoft OLE 2.3 and Internet Library
5.0.3 extensions with previous versions, or by upgrading Office 98 to
Office 2001. This fix is similar to another
problem with Office 98 previously reported here. You can read
Thesiger's full description of the problem on our Outlook
2001 special report page. If you've seen this problem,
please let us know.

Microsoft demos Windows XP at press event. February 14,
2001 -- At a press event in Seattle yesterday, Microsoft
demonstrated Windows XP (formerly know as "Whistler"), the
technological successor to Windows 2000. The company plans to license
Windows XP on all business and consumer PCs when it ships later this
year. Windows XP features a new user interface and greater
integration with the Internet.

Group Logic will do OS X-optimized ExtremeZ-IP . February
14, 2001 -- Group Logic has responded to our report of slow Mac
OS X Public Beta file sharing performance with the ExtremeZ-IP
server for Windows. From Group Logic's Reid Lewis:

As we have proven in the past, we consistently upgrade
ExtremeZ-IP to handle new OS versions and Service Packs and
maintain not only our high performance but also our reliability,
stability under load, and compatibility with applications on both
Mac and Windows.

We fully expect that ExtremeZ-IP will provide the fastest
transfer speeds possible with OS X clients.

REALbasic 3 compiles for OS 9, OS X, and Windows. February
14, 2001 -- Real Software has released REALbasic
3, a new version of the programming environment for Macintosh
that can compile for both Macintosh and Windows. The new version runs
natively in Mac OS X (as well as OS 9 and earlier) and can compile OS
X native ("carbon") applications. There are a number of other
improvements, including exporting a project file in XML format.
Pricing
starts at US $99.95.

Thursby to ship MacSOHO for Japan. February 14, 2001 --
Thursby Software Systems announced that it will ship a Japanese
version of MacSOHO,
its cross-platform file sharing solution for the home networks. The
distributor in Japan is SRINET.
(See the Thursby site for other
international distributors.)

BrainForest 2.2 Palm organizer for Mac and Windows.
February 14, 2001 -- Aportis Technologies has released of
BrainForest
2.2, an organizer/planner/project manager for Palm OS devices
with synchronizing software for Windows and Macintosh. A CD-ROM with
the Windows, Macintosh and Palm software is US $49.95 (plus shipping
and handling). The new version increases compatibility with Palm OS
3.5 and the future Palm OS 4.0, enhances a few features, and fixes
bugs.

OS X slows Win2k SFM, ExtremeZ-IP, but not MacServerIP.
February 7, 2001 -- Austin Williams sent us a report on performance
testing of three AFP-over-IP file servers for Windows 2000: Group
Logic's ExtremeZ-IP,
Cyan's MacServerIP,
Microsoft's Services for Macintosh. He found that with Mac OS 9
clients, ExtremeZ-IP and MacServerIP produce similar performance
results, which were faster than Services for Macintosh. However, with
Mac OS X Public Beta as a client, Williams found that Microsoft SFM
and ExtremeZ-IP slowed radically. (MacServer IP access didn't.) You
can read his report on our AFP-over-TCP/IP
Servers for Windows NT/2000 special report page.

I can confirm this problem. We spent hours testing this
very issue for a client through their MS Proxy and our own, but,
after many hours, we were unable to find a setting on MS Proxy to
alter anywhere. Furthermore, I tried every FTP client I knew
(including NetFinder [our preferred client], Fetch 3.x,
Transmit, the Vicomsoft client, and Interarchy, as well as trying
to use the SOCKS app from Interarchy with the clients).
Eventually, we had to set up a Mac outside the proxy for FTP. The
FTP servers we were trying to upload to were MS FTP and ASIP 6.3.
I can also confirm that this doesn't affect downloads or Windows.

Of course, many months later, another engineer in the office
found a mention of this issue while looking for something else on
MS TechNet! Neither of us can find the article now, but he recalls
that it required modifying a Registry setting on the Proxy (which
seemed like what would be necessary at the time, though we
couldn't determine what the setting was).

VPC-Palm synching via IrDA: problem with Palm Desktop 4.
February 7, 2001 -- Luis Raposo sent us an update to his report about
hot synching a Palm device with Virtual PC 4 via a wirless IrDA
(infrared) connection in a PowerBook. He reports trouble with using
the new Windows Palm Desktop 4.0 application. You can read his report
on our Virtual PC 4 special report
page.

I seem to have found a fix/workaround. The whole issue
seems to be related to the Microsoft Office Manager running.
Disable MOM, and the problem goes away.

I've been able to consistently recreate this issue, so I'm
assuming it is simply an incompatibility between the two products
(hopefully MS will fix it before shipping Outlook 2001
"Final").

When I receive an email with a hyperlink in it, clicking the
hyperlink without launching IE first will result in a solid lockup
(rock solid, not even force quit will work). However, if IE is
already running, the link works fine.

NameCleaner 2.1 supports Internet Config mappings February
7, 2001 -- Sig Software has released NameCleaner
2.1 (US $ 20, free upgrade), a new version of its Mac utility for
Macintosh that can remove PC-illegal characters in Mac file names.
The new version adds support for Internet Config or Internet control
panel mappings of file extensions, recognition of case, among other
things.

Aladdin offers StuffIt rebate. February 7, 2001 -- Aladdin
is offering a US $25 rebate for StuffIt
Deluxe 6 (US $79), the Macintosh utility for cross-platform
compression and encoding tasks. First-time buyers can mail-in for the
rebate when they purchase StuffIt Deluxe 6.0 through a retail store
before June 30, 2001.

Information Week looks at OS X in a Windows environment.
February 7, 2001 -- Information Week has a story called Mac
Suits up for Business that discusses interoperability with
Windows, including Outlook 2001:Mac for Exchange Server and Mac OS
X.

Whistler formally named--Windows XP. February 6, 2001 --
Microsoft announced that the name of its next version of Windows, the
successor to Windows 2000 code-named Whistler, will be Windows
XP. (XP stands for "experience.") Microsoft said that Windows XP
will ship during the second half of 2001. The company also said that
the next version of MS Office will be called Office XP.

Readers report: no problem with Outlook 2001 Beta and Office
98. February 6, 2001 -- In response to yesterday's reader report
about a possible problem with beta version of Office 2001:Mac for
Exchange Server and Office 98, half a dozen readers wrote in to say
that they did not see the problem. The readers were all running Mac
OS 9.1.

Steve Minard points out a similarity of this report with another
problem, and offers a workaround:

This sort of problem has occurred before with users of
the ancient MS project or FoxPro products. The workaround I've
used in the past was to move the MS specific shared library file
to the application folder immediately after each product
installation. Keeping none of the libraries in the Extensions
folder allowed each application to use the libraries that it
shipped with, avoiding the problem described above. Outlook 2001
seems to insist that the common libraries be in the Extensions
folder, hopefully this is only a characteristic of the beta. Even
so because my systems do not depend on anything in the Extensions
folder, simply moving the Outlook installed shared libraries to
the Extensions Disabled folder restores full function of the older
products even MS project 4.0.

Simon Gibbs brings up another two issue:

It appears that since Outlook 2001 has been installed
Internet Explorer 5 constantly crashes out with memory errors when
downloading files or receiving pages with large images - I have
had IE5's memory allocation set to between 15 and 25 MB but still
the problem occurs.

I assume that this has something to do with Microsoft's shared
libraries, but we have another Mac on 9.1 running all three
programs OK so maybe it's an OS problem.

Also, has anyone else noticed that if Outlook is left running
for an amount of time it slowly starts using up system resources.
Programs which run simultaneously to Outlook when it's first
launched will not run later on in the day.

I am trying to ftp from my Mac through an NT server
running NT4 and MS Proxy Server 2 and SOCKS. I've tried both
Interarchy and Vicomsoft FTP clients and they both work. So what's
my problem? I can't upload for more than 15 minutes. Download is
fine. But uploading quits every time at 15 minutes. I figure it's
a timeout setting within the server but neither myself nor my IT
guy can seem to find that setting.

...I don't experience this with ftp from any of our PCs on the
same network. Also, our Macs can connect to the web indefinitely
with no dropped connections.

Another possible cause for NT disappearing files. February
6, 2001 -- We describe a number of causes for the problem of Mac
files disappearing from Windows servers on our Windows
Server Tips page. Reader Nick Collingridge thinks he may have
found another:

One of my clients has a problem when files are copied to
a Win2K volume that they momentarily appear to have copied over
before the files just disappear!

When I added the AppleTalk Seed Routing to the Win2K server
without thinking I set the network range to be 1 to 65,000-odd -
as much as anything because Win2K lets you do this. I have now
modified the range to be 1 to 253 and as a result all nodes appear
now to be able to communicate without problems. I suspect that the
answer is that when being seeded the systems were given random
numbers from all over the shop, which meant that they ended up
essentially being in different zones. As a result they could mount
the Win2K server and everything looked OK, but when files were
copies over the copy actually failed.

This was a rather odd problem because on face value nothing was
wrong &endash; but when you actually tried to do anything across
the connection it didn't work.

After I'd installed OS 9.1, I also had a problem syncing
with my Palm via the USB connection to my Lombard PowerBook.

I discovered that the install had automatically set AppleTalk
to "Ethernet" and "On." Turning it off worked for me.

NEW TIP: Synching Outlook 2001 with Palm using an Ethernet
cradle. February 5, 2001 -- Michael Perbix wrote to say he found
a way to synch a Palm device to Outlook 2001:Mac Beta for Exchange
Server. It involves using:

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the problem with using
Outlook Beta with Office 98. I think the new beta is very nice and
stable, but when I tried to start Excel, I started getting OLE and
memory errors. Outlook Beta adds newer versions of:

More Outlook 2001 Beta reader reports. February 5, 2001 --
We've posted several additional user reports about Outlook 2001. One
reader wishes for user-defined fields in the task list (for workflow
tracking). Another reader can't see his address book when not
connected to the server, even though the reader downloaded it. You
can read these and other comments on our Outlook
2001:Mac Beta special report page.

I've been reading comments on your site regarding
problems with MacServer IP and don't quite understand why. I've
been using MSIP in our business for 8 months or more and I am not
experiencing any of the problems I see on your site. Per my
success, correct configurations is needed to make MSIP operate to
one's business satisfaction. Nonetheless, I have nothing against
ExtremeZ-IP, but I've heard from others that it has failed them
and therefore MSIP was adopted.

I think both ExtremeZ-IP and MacServer IP are both good
products, but they must be configured correctly.

A cross-platform solution to catalog CD-ROMs, Zips, hard
disks, and all the other media. In contrast to all other similar
tools on both platforms, this combo will save the catalog data in
simple files on a network disk in a common file format. So one
catalog database can be used by both platforms on many different
computers.

Getting iTunes to work with Virtual Game Station. February
5, 2001 -- In response to our report of problems with the CD/DVD
driver supplied with iTunes and Connectix Game Station for Mac,
Ronald Leroux wrote in with this:

I checked Connectix's knowledge base. They suggest to use the
driver that comes with Mac OS 9.1 instead. The driver with iTunes
seems to cause problems with some games.

I just tonight finally got around to installing Citrix
Feature release 1, SP2 on my Metaframe Server (WIN TSE 4.0, SP6).
The problem with the Mac client has vanished. The FAQ on their
update talks about new support for 32 bit video, etc. It looks
like the issue with Mac OS 9.1 is that the Metaframe Server
Service Pack needs applied, and all is then well.

Reader report on ExtremeZ-IP. February 1, 2001 -- Nathan
McBride sent us an account of using ExtremeZ-IP:

I bought two copies back in November and set them up on
two identical Compaq Proliant DL 380's running dual 833's each
with 512 MB's of Ram. They are sharing a 180GB cluster running on
a MetaStor. The only problems I have had have been with encryption
and password sharing which I solved with the help of one of the
forum contributors on this web site. I also had a problem with
servers unmounting on the Macs after a period of inactivity but
with the AppleShare Client Setup utility I was able to correct
that easily enough by adjusting the timeout connect to 0 seconds
for AppleShare. Other than those issues the software has been one
of the best purchases I have ever made and has helped us so much
with with cross platform server issues.

We are almost done moving our final Mac servers over and once
we are done things should be smooth from here on in. I have been
talking with the engineers at GroupLogic a bit over the past few
days regarding maximizing my dual processors and we are currently
researching a way to get the most out of a dual and quad processor
with ExtremeZ-IP.

Conflict with MacLinkPlus, Mac OS 9.1, and AutoTextTyper.
February 1, 2001 -- A MacFixIt
Forum discussion describes a three-way conflict with MacLinkPlus
from DataViz, Mac OS 9.1, and AutoTextTyper. The Finder crashes when
the user tries to open a MacLinkPlus 12.001 contextual menu.

Microsoft stops resellers from bundling Windows 95.
February 1, 2001 -- Microsoft has not renued Windows 95 bundling
licenses to PC manufacturers, including Dell and Connectix. (See this
ZDNet
report.) The bundling license expired on December 31. Connectix
has verified that this licensing termination is the reason it is no
longer is selling Windows 95 with Virtual PC, which is considered PC
hardware in terms of Windows licensing. Additionally, FWB no longer
offers Windows 95 with SoftWindows.

January 2001

ExtremeZ-IP 2 adds IP print spooler option. January 31,
2001 -- Today GroupLogic released ExtremeZ-IP
2.0 (starting at US $1178 for 10 clients--upgrade pricing
unknown). The new version of the AFP-over-TCP/IP file-sharing server
for Windows NT/2000 (server or workstation) includes an option called
IP Print Support (EZIP w/IP Print starting at US $1999 for 10
clients).

IP Print Support is a print spooler that can hand Postscript jobs
to a printer or to the Windows Server print queue. IP Print Support
does not use the LPD/LPR IP printing of Mac OS, but uses a method a
faster method that also enables browsing for printers and print
servers via a Mac utility and the Services Location Protocol (SLP).
GroupLogic President Reid Lewis told MacWindows that IP Print Support
is 10 to 15 times faster than LPD/LPR of Mac OS IP printing.

The drawback to using TCP/IP to print is the lack of the Printer
Access Protocol (PAP), which can report much more printer status
information back to the user or Mac software than can IP.

Also in ExtremeZ-IP 2 are speed improvements, according to
GroupLogic, which also said that performance is better on faster on
Windows 2000 than on Windows NT 4.

More Mac utilities for joining/decoding PC Usenet files.
January 31, 2001 -- Responding to yesterday's report of a utility
that can join segmented files posted at Usenet groups by PC users,
two more readers have reported additional Mac utilities that
accomplish the same. Chris Toppan says that YA-Decoder
(short for Yet Another Decoder, US $15) can combine and decode
MasterSplitter files on a Mac. YA-Decoder is intended as a helper
application for decoding Usenet binary attachments.

Joe Ashear says that MT
NewsWatcher by Simon Fraser (free) is a newsreader for Mac that
can rejoin
segmented usenet binaries. However, he says "I'm not sure if the
"MasterSplitter" kind are different somehow from the ones MTNW
joins."

Update on Quark files corrupting.
January 31, 2001 -- Two readers responded to our last report earlier
this week on Quark files corrupting on
cross-platform networks. Bryce Steiner doesn't believe opening
the files on any AFP Server, as previously suggested, causes the
problem:

I've been running Win 2000 server for nearly 2 years now
and have not had this problem with Quark on the Mac at all. I have
those same file permissions at the top of the article. I don't
think it effects all AFP servers.

Mike Hughes saw the problem on a Windows NT Server running
Services for Mac, but not with ExtremeZ-IP running:

With PC's running NT 4.0 connecting to an NT 4.0 server
using standard [SFM} NT file sharing, we would see 1-2 Quark
files per day corrupt. Markztools was usually able to repair the
files.

We have since installed over 100 new Macs, and during testing
between Extreme Z-IP and Thursby Systems Dave Client, we saw a
pattern develop. The Macintosh computers that were using Dave
still saw the same file corruption.

The Macintosh computers that were using ExtremeZ-IP saw no file
corruption. Given that the ExtremeZ-IP software produced better
benchmarks and did not cause file corruption, we have setup all
users to connect Via ExtremeZ-IP. We see maybe 1 file every 2-3
weeks that corrupts, and this is usually caused by a users that
has crashed will saving.

Basic Outlook info: profile password vs. Exchange Server
log-in. January 31, 2001 -- Luis Antezana sent us a note about
the difference between a profile password and an Exchange Server
log-in, which might be useful to people new to Outlook for Exchange
Server.

The password for the *profile* is a locally set password
used for situations where there may be multiple users on one
machine, each with their own separate Outlook setups, while the
UserID/Password/Domain request is a request to the Exchange server
(via the domain's PDC) for access to the individual's mailbox
account on the server. These are two discretely different things
that present themselves sequentially to the user and can thus be
confusing.

Outlook 2001 Beta comment. January 31, 2001 -- We've
updated our Outlook 2001:Mac Beta
special report with comments from John Willis, who is not as
happy with the new Exchange Server client as some other readers.

New Mac utility can join segmented PC Usenet files. January
30, 2001 -- TechSono Engineering's PixMachineMac
(US $49) is a new utility for the Mac that can join segmented files
posted at Usenet groups by PC users. Windows users often segment
files using a program call MasterSplitter before posting them to
Usenet newsgroups. There is no version of MasterSplitter available
for the Mac. Mike Trivisonno of TechSono describes it:

PixMachineMac is primarily a Usenet download utility that
can detect MasterSplitter files, save them to a Mac, and decode
them using the handy MasterSplitter Widget.

Connectix re-releases VPC 1.0.1 in 4 languages. January 30,
2001 -- Connectix has once again posted the Virtual
PC 4.01 updater, this time in English, French, and and German
versions. For more on VPC 1.0.1 updater, see our Virtual
PC 4 special report.

I am running an iMac DV SE networked through an
AsanteTalk box to a 6100, an 575 and a DeskWriter 600 using
AppleTalk. I could print to the printer before I upgraded to OS
9.1 and the black strip of frustration appeared when I went to
print an important document. Fortunately I can still print it from
the 6100/DOS compatible which is running on OS 8.1 until they
issue the bug fix.

Keyspan serial-USB adapter works with VPC. January 30, 2001
-- Scott Coté reports success using a new USB-to-serial
adapter with Virtual PC:

As a network administrator I have a constant need for a 9
pin PC COM port to configure routers, access points, etc... So I
figured I would try and get an adapter for my PB2000 to load on
VPC.

To my surprise, Keyspan's latest USB to Serial converter,
advertised as PC only, COMES WITH MAC Drivers, which even
recognize under VPC 2.X (which doesn't directly support USB to COM
conversions under the com setup found under the preferences menu).
Once I loaded the Mac software, the serial port was available to
both Mac and PC (via VPC) and has worked flawlessly with Hyperterm
for configuring devices!

Handheld devices and Virtual PC. January 30, 2001 --
Readers keep asking about Virtual PC synching with various handheld
devices. We have an answer on how to synch
to Palm devices, but others still allude us. Joseph Babiak Jr.
describes failure with the Pocket PC:

Has anyone had success getting a Compaq iPaq Pocket PC to
sync up with VPC running on the Mac? I took a quick shot at it
with an iPaq and VPC running on a Cube and interfacing with a USB
cradle. VPC 4.0 with W2K just stops running...

The problem seems to be with Color Depth on the Citrix
Server, and something Citrix Changed in the client. I have a
Citrix Server (MetaFrame 1.8 Feature Release 2) that I connect to
with my Mac's (all OS 9.1, Client 6.0b66) and never have any
problems. I can set my color depth to anything I want and it works
fine.

If I connect back to a Citrix MF 1.8 Server, NOT FEATURE
RELEASE 2, then I have all sorts of Color Issues, UNTIL, I match
my Mac's Color Dept to the Color Depth on the Server. Even then
there are some oddities.

When I connect to the Server I get a message about :

The Following requested Video Mode was not available
:
640x480x16 BPP
The Video Mode has been set to the Following :
640x480x8 BPP
License Not Installed for Requested Video Mode.

More on Quark corruption: Miramar responds,
reader sees it w/o network. January 29, 2001 -- We've had a pair
of responses to our January 17 report of a corrupting
Quark files with PC MACLAN. The first is from Miramar Systems;
the second is from a reader who sees the problem even without a
network. Scott Christopher of Miramar reported this:

We have seen this problem in the past and have worked
with Quark to come up with a work around. Below is a paragraph
copied directly out of my personal notes.

4-25-00. Spoke to Scott Henry at Quark. He is a QA
engineer who deals mostly with the PC side but works with the
Mac stuff as well. He says they saw this problem in the past on
Novel AFP servers where the rights of the folder were
read/write/modify but not create. If the user double clicks on
the Quark file on the server the temp files have to be created
on the server at the location of the Quark file being opened.
If they cannot be created then there are problems.

If quark is opened and File Open is used, the temp files are
then created at the location the OS stipulates. This prevents
the Quark temp files from being written across the network to
the AFP volume and should help the situation.

Quark recommends 8.3 naming convention and simple server and
path names when using quark files cross platform because they
maintain a usage profile in the quark file that is supposed to
keep track of all graphics and external files. This can get
screwed up pretty easy by the cross-platform UNC and file
naming differences of PC's and Mac's.

Because of the way Quark handles its temp files, it is a bad
idea to open a Quark file from any AFP Server. The best thing
to do is to copy the Quark file to the local machine, open it,
edit it, and close it; then copy it back to the AFP Server.

Thank you,
Scott Christopher
Miramar Systems, Inc.

Mark Tennent sees a similar problem without a network:

When we transfer QuarkXPress files via sneakernet from
Mac to PC and back again, very often the files are corrupted even
if they haven't been opened on the PC. Sometimes they can be
rescued by changing the creator/file type flags with a utility
like FileBuddy. But more often than not they have been
irrecoverably damaged.

It happens with QXP 3.3 and 4.1 files. Macs running OS 9.1 and
PC Windows 98. Yet transferring the same files via the same method
to other PC's has caused no problems in the past.

New TIP: copying e-mail in the Outlook 2001 preview pane.
January 29, 2001 -- Ted Brown told us how to copy
e-mail in the preview pane in Outlook 2001: Mac Beta for Exchange
Server:

You can copy from the pane using the context-sensitive
menu (control-click). The command key and normal menu do not work.

New product: BriefAudit tracks file changes in Win servers.
January 29, 2001 -- Developer Patrick Peccatte has just released
BriefAudit
v. 1.0, a shareware program for Windows NT/2000 servers that
keeps track of who made modifications and when:

The [4.0.1] update has solved the Shared
IP/NetWare conflict. It now works like a charm. I was also
impressed with the documentation for Transferring Windows 98 to a
dynamically-expanding drive image. I followed step by step and I
now have a 15.3 GB C Drive. This is a major improvement over the 1
GB drive that was full after I installed Office 2000. I have
installed VPC 4.01 on a Beige G3 with 500 mhz CPU and a FireWire
PowerBook 400.

The 4.0.1 update was posted briefly last week, then removed, due
to California's rolling power outages and the unavailability of an
international version, according to Connectix. (See Friday' news
below for more on 4.0.1 update.)

Getting around iTunes conflict with Virtual Game Station.
January 29, 2001 -- A pair of readers responde to our report last
Friday of a conflict with Connectix Virtual Game Station 1.4 (CVGS),
the Sony PlayStation emulator. Ronald Leroux reports that removing
the CVGS Autolaunch extension enables the CD/DVD driver supplied with
iTunes to work with the Connectix Game Station v1.4.1 (blue and white
G3, Mac OS 9.1).

However, Vincent Ste-Marie didn't see the problem:

I'm using CVGS 1.41 and installed Mac OS 9.1 and iTunes.
According to Apple System Profiler, I'm using Apple CD/DVD Driver
version 1.43. CVGS has no problems starting up and loading Play
Station games when I insert them in the CD-ROM drives. I'm using a
tangerine iBook with 160 MB RAM. Also, I don't get the dialog box
that says the CD is "unformatted" and asks if you want to format
it.

Recently I've migrated a PC group to the Macintosh. We
had to use Netscape for the browser because this company handles
their proxy via a .pac file. The problem is that only IE 5.0 is
fully supported, but it doesn't know how to parse a .pac file.
So....does anybody out there have an idea how to "fix" that?

DataViz X-platform Palm software released for 4 more
languages. January 29, 2001 -- DataViz has release localized
French, Italian, German, and Spanish versions of Documents
To Go, the company's Mac and Windows software for viewing and
editing Word and Excel documents with Palm OS-based devices. (See
also DataViz' list of international
distributors.)

LATE FRIDAY NEWS POST: Connectix pulls the
VPC 4.0.1 updater. January 26, 2001 -- Connectix has told
MacWindows that it has temporarily removed the VPC 4.0.1 updater
described in the next news item. VPC Product Manager Teresa Mahler
explains why:

I wanted to let you know that Connectix pulled the VPC
4.01 updater. A couple of things happened. First we lost power for
the vast majority of the day yesterday (between the bad weather
and rolling blackouts maintaining power has been a problem).

Secondly, we only posted the English 4.0.1 updater and many of
our international customers were downloading it. However, the
English only updater wasn't designed to work on international
versions....

Early next week we will post the English & International
updaters simultaneously. Hopefully customers will then choose the
appropriate updater.

Mac OS 9.1 improves File Exchange for mounting USB PC disks.
January 26, 2001 -- Apple Technical Note TN2010 is a detailed
description of changes in Mac OS 9.1, including changes
in File Exchange 3.0.4, the control panel for mounting PC disks
and mapping file extensions. Among the changes are a number of bug
fixes for USB drives and :

"PC SCSI Disks: Mount at startup" is now turned off by default
speed the Mac boot time.

Fixes a problem that would hang the system when trying to
mount PC formatted floppy disks with USB drives

Fixes a problem with multiple USB PC formatted drives.

Fixes a problem that caused file copying to USB hard drives to
stall or slow down.

Fixes a copy problem with PC formatted volumes containing a
folder with the same name as the disk.

What people need to realize here is that Windows machines
use WINS for name resolution of the server. Macs are not capable
of WINS resolution...So, in order for the client to find the
server, it is important that the server has proper DNS entries on
your corporate DNS server and that you use the server's DNS name
and not it's WINS name when connecting (though they should be the
same for sanity's sake).

Either that, or a hosts file will work.

Outlook 8.2.2 login problems profile corruption. January
26, 2001 -- About ten percent of John Parnaby's 500 Macs have been
experience problems logging into the Exchange server. It seems as if
the profile has been corrupted, but there appears to be no reason for
it. The fix is to change the user's profile in Outlook Settings and
then change it back to the user. You can read John Parnaby's report
on our Outlook 8.x for Exchange
special report page

Mac UAM authentication under Win 2000: insecure? January
26, 2001 -- Brad Judy of the University of Colorado at Boulder has
problems with the security of the Microsoft UAM for Windows 2000
Server Services for Macintosh. He says:

The higher education community is attempting to pressure
Microsoft to release a Macintosh UAM client capable of using
Kerberos or NTLM v2 (preferably Kerberos). There is the
possibility of a third party creating a Kerberos Windows client
for OS X (a work in progress), but not for OS 8.x/9.x.

Two more reports of AirPort PC with PCs: Linux; D-Link.
January 26, 2001 -- We've added to more reports to our AirPort
and PCs special report page. Chris Bailey describes using the
wireless network with RedHat Linux running on a Sony VAIO laptop. Ron
Postma is using a D-Link wireless card in a desktop Compaqwith
AirPort Base Station. He had some driver problems, but
solvedthem.

It would appear that iTunes's installer puts a copy of
its own Apple CD/DVD Driver in your Extensions folder when you
first install the package (which replaces the one shipping with
your computer).

Unfortunately, it doesn't read PlayStation CD the way the
previous version does. It treats them as "unformatted" disks and
asks if you want to format it. Clicking past these still launches
CVGS, but it is unable to load the game you've inserted.

It's only when I reinstalled the shipping version of Apple
CD/DVD Driver (version 1.3.8) labeled "Mac OS CPU Software 2.3"
beneath the file name in the Get Info box, does CVGS return to
normal (my computer is a Power Mac G4 - Gigabit edition with a
regular DVD-ROM).

The version of Apple CD/DVD Driver that iTunes installs is
version 1.4.3, labeled "iTunes 1.0" just beneath the file name in
the Get Info box.

However, playing and ripping music CDs doesn't seem to be
affected by the version downgrade, needed to solve the CVGS
incompatibility.If there's any incompatibility during "burning" of
CDs while using this lower version of Apple CD/DVD Driver, I'd be
very surprised.

X-platform engineer sought. January 26, 2001 -- Device
Driver Warehouse, Inc. of Sonoma, California, is seeking a
cross-platform engineer "to convert an existing ADSL modem from PCI
interface on Win95 to MAC 8.5 over USB." If you're interested,
send them an e-mail. (Tell
'em you saw it at MacWindows...)

Update on the Citrix/OS 9.1 bug: Citrix working on a fix.
January 24, 2001 -- We've updated
our Citrix special report with more on the Mac OS 9.1/Citrix
client 6.0 screen redraw problem. It includes:

A note from Citrix tech support saying that the company is
working on a fix. Citrix blames "stringent palette guidelines" in
Mac OS 9.1 for the bug.

A reader explains why he prefers reverting to client 4.1
rather than switching the color depth.

Another reader reports that switching the color depth didn't
fix the problem for him.

After upgrading (not a clean install) from Mac OS 9.0 to Mac
OS 9.l the Virtual PC Application gives an error that "it has been
moved." The fix is to reinstall Virtual PC 3.x.

Printing to a serial printer (on older Macs--not USB) produces
black and white bars on the printout. This occurs with Epson
emulation. There is no known fix (other than using PostScript
emulation or printing to a network printer.) Connectix says it is
working on a fix.

Virtual PC 4 only has the second problem, printing to serial
printers using Epson emulation.

I'd like to confirm Chris
Bakowski's fix of the _print one message from Outlook 8.22 to an
HP USB DeskJet printer then get errors_ problem. Since installing the
HP DeskJet 640c driver, this is no longer a issue in our workgroup
with this client and our 970Cxi DeskJets.

AShare Helper adds AppleShare IP admin tasks. January 24,
2001 -- AShare
Helper v1.7.3 is a free utility for AppleShare IP servers that
helps administrators maintain the server by performing a lot of minor
tasks and notifying you by e-mail. Some of its features:

Detects a System Crash then can use Disk Warrior to repair all
local non boot or non network volumes

Detect when the server is not running and provide alerts or
notifications via e-mail.

Make regular backups of the local Users & Groups Datafile
and AppleShare PDS files

Solutions update: another 3270/5250 terminal emulator for Mac.
January 24, 2001 -- We've added Gallagher & Robertson's
Glink for Macintosh to our
list of terminal emulator
products on our Network Solutions page. G and R is a Norwegian
company that makes Glink for Windows and Java as well. Glink emulates
3720 and 5250 terminals and others as well. (Thanks to Frode
Kristiansen.)

Microsoft settles Java lawsuit with Sun.January 24, 2001 --
Microsoft has settled with Sun Microsystems over Sun's lawsuit
against Microsoft's uses of Java in Windows, according to a ZDNet
story. Microsoft has made changes to Java so that it was now
longer cross-platform. Under the settlement, Microsoft will pay Sun
$20 million and can longer use the phrase "Java-compatible" to
describe its products.

I discovered a few months ago that the conflict is
avoided by going into the Date and Time control panel and turning
off the menu bar clock. Since I did that, I've not had one crash
in Word 98, nor in 2001 after I upgraded. Others who have tried
this report the same success.

I have found that the problem with screen redraws on the
Citrix ICA Client 6.0 for MacOS and MacOS 9.1 seems to be caused
by the Mac's screen resolution being greater then the ICA client's
screen bit depth.

For instance, if you have your Mac set to Millions Of Colors,
and the ICA Client to 256 colors, it will have redraw problems.
The solution: Either set the ICA Client to a better bit depth, or
change your Mac's bit depth.

I found that both versions 4.1 and V6 of the Mac Citrix
client caused me to have redraw problems with OS 9.1. The solution
that worked for me was to download the Java version of the Client.
I built the Java classes into a standalone app using JBindery from
the MRJ SDK V2.2 downloaded from the Apple Developer site. The
procedure is actually well documented in the Citrix Java admin
guide, and running the Citrix Java code in JBindery invokes a
"wizard" which takes you through the steps for building the app.

What was surprising was that the Java version of the Client ran
faster than the compiled versions - you can draw your own
conclusions about the quality of the code that must imply. And the
redraw issue went away.

Until now nothing helps, except logging in as
administrator, which clearly points out that the problem is
somehow related to user rights. Even when giving everyone full
rights on all the files, the problem stays.

If we use SFM on the same server, there is no problem, again
pointing out the problem is MacServerIP. We tried this with or
without SP1, running SFM and MacServerIP together or not, the
problem stays.

New faster build of Basilisk II, 68k Mac emulator for PC.
January 23, 2001 -- James Watters of the Mac
Emulation Station reports that Lauri Pesonen has made available
his latest Basilisk
II Build 142 for Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000. (Basilisk II is an open
source, 68000 (Pre-PowerPC) Macintosh emulator for PCs.) Watters
says:

Among other things, he has optimized the code using
assembly language and created a single Basilisk.exe executable
instead of the previous two Basilisk executables (one for Windows
9x/Me and one for NT/2000). Initial reports using Speedometer and
Apple Personal Diagnostics indicate that the new build is 175
percent faster then the previous builds on Windows 9x/Me. I'll be
running real world bench tests to confirm this.

Two products named DoubleTalk: Connectix not the first.
January 23, 2001 -- We were a bit surprised to discover that
Connectix' new cross-platform file transfer product, DoubleTalk, is
not the only product with the name. RC
Systems' DoubleTalk product line are text-to-speech voice
synthesizers for PCs in education and special-needs markets.

Correction: Outlook 2001 Beta reader report. January 23,
2001 -- We've made a correction to one of our reader
reports on Outlook 2001 Beta for Mac. The new client for
Microsoft Exchange Server does not import PAB into contacts, as
previously stated. We regret the error.

MacWindows not affected by California's rolling blackouts.
January 22, 2001 -- In case you've wondered, MacWindows has not been
affected by the rolling
blackouts we've been experiencing in California. The location of
our server and our Internet access points are backed up by batteries
and generators.

Fixes problem with copying of large files that would hang the
Macintosh

Enables setup of Desktop printer through DAVE Client

The update for OS 9.1 is in addition to another patch released
last week that fixed more minor bugs.

New Tip: type in Win2K Server NetBIOS name. January 22,
2001 -- Daric Smith sent in this tip for accessing Windows 2000
Servers from a Mac:

When AppleTalk is not active, to access a Windows 2000
Server a Mac user must enter the server IP address. But, I haven't
seen anyone mention that you can also use the NetBIOS name. Thus,
if my server were named SERVER1 with an IP of 192.168.1.50, I
could access it using the IP address (not user friendly) or I
could access it using the SERVER1 name (much more user friendly).
I haven't tested this when using the client is on a different
subnet.

Smith sent this basic suggestion for people not too familiar with
setting up Windows 2000 Services for Macintosh:

In the TCP/IP properties of the server, there is the
AppleTalk protocol that must be "installed" for SFM to work. There
is also a check box next to it. Checking this box enables the part
of AppleTalk that gives Mac users the ability to view the server
in the Chooser. If this box is unchecked, they will not see the
server in the Chooser. Basically, the AppleTalk protocol must be
installed, but it does not have to be active.

HP firmware fixes problem with printers dropping off Win NT
network. January 22, 2001 -- John Wolf found a solution to his
problem of printers disappearing from
the Mac Chooser on Windows NT networks. Apple and MacWindows
readers have reported that turning off the Spanning Tree Protocol on
an Ethernet bridge or switch port fixes the problem. (See our
Windows Server Tips page for more
info.) However, this didn't work for Wolf. He found the fix in an HP
firmware update to JetDirect Ethernet:

I finally found the solution to all of my printers
dropping out of the Chooser for 1-2 minutes when one of them is
power cycled.

HP quietly put a fix in the 7.x and later firmware
that fixes this. I flashed all our JetDirect Ethernet interfaces
up to 8.32, and the problem is gone! As a note to others trying to
do this: The older 2550 and 2552 JetDirect cards can be flashed to
8.32, but it is a 2 step process. Flash them to 5.05, then again
to 8.32. This process must be done from a PC using Download
Manager. From what I have read, once you reach a certain version,
you can use the web based WebJetAdmin, probably from a Mac as
well.

I have an NT network with 95, 98, NT 4.0 workstations.
We're using MS Proxy Server 2.0 with the MSP client software to
access RealAudio audio/video streams. I have a client that is
using a Macintosh PowerBook G3 that wants to use RealAudio
[but could not].

I have resolved the problem by installing WIN PROXY 3.0 on a
separate server (which is SOCKS 5 compliant ) and after some
configuring it works great. MS Proxy SOCKS won't handle UDP and
thus the root of the problem. I now have a client with his own
proxy server.

Palm synching tips for Virtual PC 4 work. January 22, 2001
-- Regarding the issue of synching a Palm
device from Virtual PC 4, Representative Rants told us that the
solutions sent to use by our readers "solved my problem in 10
minutes." He added " I can't thank your readers enough."

X-platform tips for Macromedia Director movies. January 22,
2001 -- A page
at the Macromedia site describes cross-platform issues when
creating Director movies to be viewed by Windows and Mac OS users.
(Thanks to Ethan Allen for pointing this out.)

Novell Prosoft 5.1.3 conflict continues with Office 2001, OS
9.1. January 22, 2001 -- Damien Barrett reports that the known
conflict with Mac Client for NetWare
5.13 and MS Office also occurs with Office 2001 and Mac OS 9.1.
The bug can cause Office to freeze. Last October, Prosoft told
MacWindows that it knows about the conflict, but was not planning to
do any more work on the Client because its contract with Novell had
expired. (This and other NetWare issues are discusses on our
NetWare and Macintosh Issues page.

Upgrading to Exchange Server 2000. January 22, 2001 -- A
ZDNet
story describes upgrading to Exchange Server 2000, which it says
is "not a trivial task."

OS 9.1 conflicts with DAVE; Thursby posts bug-fix patch for
9.0.4 and earlier. January 19, 2001 -- Thursby Systems has posted
an article saying that DAVE
2.5.1 is incompatible with Mac OS 9.1. Among the problems:

Mac may freeze when copying files (larger files have a greater
chance freezing the Mac). The workaround for this problem is to
use the DAVE application (Apple menu, DAVE), rather than the
Finder, to copy files.

It is not possible to create a new desktop printer using DAVE
Client.

Thursby says that it is working on the problem.

Meanwhile, Thursby posted DAVE
Client v2.5p7, a patch that fixes a number bugs with Mac OS 9.0.4
and earlier, including:

Problems related to using Retrospect Backup to backup a
DAVE-mounted volume

Error when saving Illustrator and PDF files

Problems with Adobe Illustrator 8.x and 9.x

Problem that would display incorrect Created and Modified
dates on an NTFS file system.

Next Mac OS X Server version to fold in AppleShare IP.
January 19, 2001 -- A ZDNet
report says that Apple will release OS X Server, a new version of
Mac OS X Server, in April of this year. The report says that Apple
combine Mac OS X and AppleShare IP products in OS X Server. Windows
file sharing clients will be supported by SAMBA, the open source SMB
server for Unix and Linux.

Fix for VPC 4 Palm Synching. January 19, 2001 -- A number
of readers have written in response to a problem reported by a reader
on Palm synching in Windows with Virtual PC 4. Vance Butler sums up
the problem: "You do have to make sure you have serial ports properly
identified and that your are using SERIAL connection not USB." We
have serveral other readers description of the problem on our
Virtual PC 4 Special Report page. Luis
M. Raposo also discribes how he synchs using the wireless infrared
port to a Powerbook.

3270 and 5250 terminal emulators for Mac. January 19, 2001
-- On our last post on January 17, we asked if anyone know of a 3270
terminal emulator that runs on a PowerBook. We received a over a
dozen messages with recommendations for shareware and commercial
TN3270 and TN5250 terminal emulators for Mac connectivity to
mainframe and IBM AS/400 computers. We've posted a list of 5 of these
products on our Network Solutions
page.

As for as PowerBooks in particular, William Perez said "We've been
using DataComet with a
PowerBook for flawless 3270 terminal emulation."

Seth Gumble

A non-free alternative (I've not used it) can be found at
www.celview.com. For reference, I am able to get tn3270 to work on
a FireWire PowerBook with OS 9.0.4. There was nothing special to
configure. I guess I would try the obvious things like using IP
address instead of host name.

Kevin Montera points out that Apple's old SNAps 3270, which was
sold and eventually become MacRumba, is now Celview
from Celcorp.

Thomas Hauber correctly points out this distinction in terminal
emulators:

I am a little curious why Scott Krajewski would be
looking for a 3270 emulator for an AS400. Most terminal emulation
for AS400s are telnet 5250. Either way a good shareware source is
Mocha Soft We have been
using their 5250 emulator for years, it is small and efficient.
They also put out a 3270 emulator as well.

Paul Russo, Technical Support of DCSi ( a maker of terminal
emulation software for Windows) suggests:

The emulator itself is not likely the problem since it
works with other Macs. You need to look somewhere else, probably
somewhere in the networking or the TCP/IP network settings. Name
server problems and firewalls are typical problems.

To prove this, run some other emulator (VT emulators like Nifty
Telnet are OK too). Run it and try to connect to the AS/400. You
should get at least a login prompt. It will probably fail too. If
so, the problem is not in the emulator.

Citrix/ OS 9.1 workaround confirmed. January 19, 2001 --
Leland Jory, the reader who first reported the conflict between Mac
OS 9.1 and the Citrix client, verifies that downgrading the client
version 6 to version 4.1 solves the problem. Several other readers
have also reported this.

More reports of Citrix Client and Mac OS 9.1 conflict.
January 17, 2001 -- We had a number of readers responding to
yesterday's report of problems with Mac OS 9.1 and the Citrix
Macintosh client (which enables Mac users to operate Windows software
running on a Citrix server). We have 9 of these reader reports posted
on our Citrix special report page. Most
users report having the problem. Several users found that version 6
had the problem, but 4.1 did not. Several users suggested JAVA
clients, such as HOBLink
JWT, as a workaround.

VPC 4 synching with Palm OS.January 17, 2001 --
Christopher Rants, Majority Leader of the Iowa
House of Representatives, wrote us with a problem he's having
with Virtual PC 4:

I'm trying to live with my Mac in a Wintel environment.
I've been using VPC for a while, and just upgraded to VPC 4.

Overall, nice improvement, with only one bad exception that has
really cast a negative light on the whole deal. I've been unable
to hot sync my Palm Pilot since upgrading from VPC 2.1.2 to VPC
4.

Supposedly this was going to be easier with USB support now
built in (I'm on a PowerBook FireWire) but I've been completely
unsuccessful. I know the Palm and the USB port work because I've
been able to successfully hot sync on the Mac; but when I run VPC
and try to hot sync, no go. VPC sees the installed drivers, it
sees the USB connected, but no go when I hit the hot sync
button.

I just conducted a little test on my system (just got VPC
4.0 last week) and I have a solution. I'm running Windows 98 SE as
well. Before leaving VPC, go to the USB settings and uncheck "USB
Device from Epson" in the USB device list, you can still leave the
check mark in front of "Enable USB." After doing this, quit VPC by
either saving its state or shutting down (I chose to save its
state).

Now, turn off the power to your printer. Wait about 30 seconds
to a minute and then turn your printer back on. Go to the Chooser
and select the printer icon and you should be good to go. I tested
this using MS Word (Office 2001) and it worked fine.

I have been implemented PC MacLAN for NT on my network.
We run predominately Macs on the network. The main program used
here is Quark. The reason for implementing PC Mac LAN was to take
advantage of its AppleShare IP file sharing. The week after I
implemented it was chaotic with files corrupting everywhere (Quark
files). You can't even do a save as over the network, this causes
an error.

The version of PC Mac LAN is the NT 4.2 version. I am running
Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5.

Seeking a 3270 emulator for PowerBook. January 17, 2001 --
Scott Krajewski is looking for a 3270 terminal emulator to run on a
FireWire PowerBook G3, Mac OS 9.0.4. He writes:

So far every emulator I've tried fails to connect to our
AS/400 via TCP/IP. It just sits there negotiating for minutes and
sometimes connects after a LONG time. The emulators work fine with
a new iMac running the same OS. We had been using the venerable
tn3270 for years. Inquires to the Apple Boards and MacFixIt
haven't brought a solution yet.

Update: Outlook 2001 Beta report. January 16, 2001 -- We've
updated our Outlook 2001:Mac Beta
special report page with more reports from readers. Most readers
continue to send reports of this prerelease beta working well, along
with some kinks still to be worked out before the final release this
summer:

Conflict with RAM Doubler 8

OS 9.1 problem may not be related to Outlook after all

Problem with Finish character sets

A reader wishes for Palm OS synching and the ability to turn
off the preview pane

Problem with MacaNTee

Another report of Outlook 2001 as a solid beta.

Finally, Jim Beam is seeking advice on a configuring
Outlook 2001. He is running DAVE, and wonders if it is causing
his problem.

Mike Turner points out that you no longer seem to be able to mount
PC disk images in the Finder:

My new complaint about VPC 4 is the fact that I can no
longer mount the hard drives from MacOS. This is a huge problem
for me as I was using some VPC volumes to store PC originated
data. This worked well as it preserved the long file names. I
converted a couple to dynamically expanding and can no longer
mount them in Mac OS. I suppose I now need to revert back to the
VPC 3 format on these drives.

We looked into this, and Finder-mounting does seem to have been
discontined with VPC 4. Although a Connectix
VPC 4 FAQ claims Finder mounting is a feature, it isn't mentioned
in the manual.

The new driver in iTunes 1.4.3 allows me to play Star
Trek: Hidden Evil on Virtual PC 3.0. ST:HE would not run because
it could not see the CD with the version of the driver supplied
with Mac OS 9.04 (v1.3.7 ?). So a lot more software will now be
usable thanks to Apple (and Connectix.)

I have installed Mac OS 9.1 Update on my G3 B&W, but I have
not noticed any speed increase. It is however more responsive.

New Tip: SkyLINE in PC and Apple AirPort Base Station.
January 16, 2001 -- Ed K. sent in a tip on how to configure a PC
laptop with a Farallon SkyLINE 11 Mbit wireless card to get it to
work on an Apple AirPort Base Station network. You can read it on our
AirPort and PCs special report
page.

Another way to move email from OE 5 PC to OE 5 Mac. January
16, 2001 --Steve Mansfield of Cross-Platform.co.uk
sent us another way to move email from Outlook Express 5 PC to
Outlook Express 5 for Mac:

Further to previous info, this is
actually quite easy. You drag the mails you want from OE 5 PC to
wherever, copy then to your Mac, set the type/creator as M822/MSNM
and drag then into your OE 5 Mac.

The only difficulty you might have is that the subject line
becomes the file name, so a small amount of reconstruction may be
necessary. The reverse process is equally easy.

sMac OS X Server to go cross-plaform with SAMBA, PHP, etc.
January 12, 2001 -- The new version of Mac
OS X Server supports a number of cross-platform technologies that
were not in the previous version. Mac OS X Server now supports
Windows
SMB filesharing clients through SAMBA, the Linux/UNIX SMB server.
It also now supports PHP and WebDAV. (Thanks to Joel Rennich for
alerting us to this.)

News from Macworld Expo, San Francisco

Aladdin Transporter: automated compression,
communication. January 12, 2001 -- Aladdin announced a
new cross-platform compression/encoding product, Aladdin
Transporter (US $149), a type of front end for a
scripting front end for with a StuffIt compression/
decompression engine. The Macintosh software can be used to
create icons that can automate a group of actions, such as
compression/decompression, encoding/decoding, emailing, FTP,
web file transfers, and the display of dialogs, messages,
sounds, pictures, and movies. To activate the script, you
would drag and drop a file or folder on the icon.
Transporter supports Mac and PC standards, including Zip
compression and MIME encoding.

Symphony: RF wireless home net connects Macs, PCs,
appliances. January 12, 2001 -- Proxim, Inc.'s Consumer
Networks Division (formerly Farallon) announced Macintosh
PowerBook support for its Symphony-HRF
PC Card (US $129). Proxim will offer Macintosh drivers for
the cards later this month. Other Symphony product will have
Mac support later this year.

HomeRF is not compatible with AirPort (IEEE 802.11), but
is used by including handheld devices and telephones. One
potential use sited by Proxim would be to wirelessly connect
a computer to home stereo to play Internet radio over the
stereo.

PowerPrint for OS X to ship this spring. January
12, 2001 -- Strydent Software told MacWindows that PowerPrint
for Mac OS X will be release this spring. PowerPrint is Mac
software that allows Macs to print to hundreds of
non-Postscript PC printers.

PS/2 to USB Converter connects PC keyboards, mice to
Macs. January 12, 2001 -- Newnex
is now offering version 2 of PS/2 to USB Converter, a small
connector that lets you operate a Mac with PC PS/2 keyboards
and mice. (Version 2 was not yet on the Newnex web site at
press time.) Certain scanners, such as handheld barcode
scanners, are also supported. We've added PS/2 to USB
Converter to the product listings on our Keyboard
Solutions page.

News from Macworld Expo, San Francisco

Microsoft releases Watson beta--final release this
summer. January 11, 2001 -- At Wednesday's keynote
speech at Macworld Expo, Microsoft announced that it was
releasing a beta version of Outlook
2001:Mac for Exchange Server, formerly code-named
"Watson." Microsoft is giving away Outlook 2001 Beta CD-ROMs
at its Macworld Expo booth this week, and it is also
available for download. The release version of Outlook 2001
will ship this summer, when it will replace Outlook 8.2.2
for Exchange Server. Outlook 2001 will run in Mac OS X in
Classic mode.

Some of the new features include:

Cross-platform collaboration. The new
version adds cross-platform collaboration that is lacking
in previous versions, enabling Mac and Windows users to
share calendar schedules, contacts, and tasks, as well as
send and receive e-mail and meeting requests. Office 2001
supports all of the native Outlook formats, including
personal PST files, used on the Windows clients. Outlook
2001 Beta works with Exchange Server 4.0 and later.

Simplified Installation. Installation is like
that of Office. If you haven't downloaded it, you drag a
folder from the CD to a Mac hard drive. (Mac OS 8.6 or
later is required.) When you double-click the Outlook
icon, it will install the required extensions and library
files to the System folder. Then a single configuration
dialog box comes up with two fields: the Exchange Server
name and your mailbox name. A "Test Settings" button will
let you know if the names are wrong and give
troubleshooting advice. Outlook 2001 supports the Mac OS
9 keychain for passwords.

Improved interface. The user interface is much
cleaner than previous versions and is consistent with the
interface of Office 2001 for Mac. It also uses Macintosh
user interface conventions. For instance, in the Inbox
folder list, folders are represented by Finder-like
folders icons, and are expanded via triangles (like the
Finder list view), instead of the plus and minus signs of
Windows Explorer. Folders are spring-loaded when you drag
and drop messages. Outlook 2001 lets you enlarge the
fonts used in a message, to overcome the fact that fonts
created by Windows sometimes appear smaller on a Mac. And
Outlook now uses Apple's Help system.

We've also received a few reader reports about Outlook
2001. Todd Miller tested a variety of functions and found
them to work correctly. He is generally pleased, but reports
a few "minor gripes," which are to be expected in beta
software. David Toub likes the interface and installation,
and points out some aspects of the Beta that aren't quite
ready. We've posted these reader reports on our Watson
Special Report page.

Connectix to post VPC 4 bug fix
update next week; OS X version demo'd. January 11, 2001
-- Connectix has told MacWindows that the company will ship
a free update to Virtual PC 4 next week. VPC 4.0.1 will fix
about a half dozen problems, including a problem with an
older version of Visual Basic (v3).

We also learned that Connectix demonstrated a "pre-alpha"
version of Virtual PC for Mac OS X at an Apple reseller
event on Monday night. (VPC 4 does not run on Mac OS X
Public Beta.) Connectix told us that since OS X Public Bet
was released, Apple has modified the OS X kernel to better
run virtual machines, including Java and Virtual PC.

Thursby demos DAVE for OS X. January 11, 2001 --
Thursby Software is running an early version of DAVE for Mac
OS X at its booth at Macworld Expo this week. Version
0.001d2 running on OS X Public Beta is integrated into the
OS X interface. DAVE for OS X will sport some new features,
such as the ability to find Windows workgroups and list them
in a popup menu. Thursby expects to ship DAVE for Mac OS X
this summer.

Mac-NT Mailing List has a new URL. January 11, 2001 -- Dan
Schwartz has moved the Mac-NT Mailing List to a new provider.
To
sign up, click here.

News from Macworld Expo, San Francisco

Mac OS X to ship March 24: Jobs ignores OS 9.1
release. January 10, 2001 -- Yesterday, Steve Jobs
announced that Mac OS X would begin shipping on March 24 for
US $129. He also said that all Macs would be shipping with
OS X preinstalled in July.

Jobs failed to mention Mac OS 9.1, which Apple released
yesterday. (Upgrade CD US $19.95; or free download). The new
version is designed to "ease the transition for tomorrow's
Mac OS X customers," according to Apple, with some Aqua-like
interface changes. OS 9.1 also includes USB Printer Sharing
1.0, which allows you to share USB printers (to other Macs)
over Ethernet networks.

One warning about OS 9.1--it is not compatible with Mac
OS X Public Beta. Apple says that the OS X Classic
environment will not run with Mac OS 9.1.

Microsoft Watson announcement due today. January
10, 2001 -- Microsoft will make an announcement today
concerning Watson, according to a worker at the Microsoft
booth. Watson is the future successor to Outlook for
Exchange Server for Macintosh. Watson was not being
demonstrated at the Microsoft booth yesterday, but
MacWindows was told that it would be today in conjunction
with an announcement. We will bring you details in
tomorrow's news. (For more on Watson, see the MacWindows
Exchange 2000 special report
page.)

MeetingMaker 7 to add web conferencing, X-platform
servers. January 10, 2001 -- Today, MeetingMaker
announced the beta of MeetingMaker
7, a new version of the cross-platform scheduling
software. The developer told MacWindows that web-based
conferencing would be a new feature. Other new features
include:

Servers and clients for Mac OS, Windows, and
UNIX

The availability of a Mac OS X version when the new
OS ship

A Java client for web browsers

Palm synchronization

Client-side time-zone changes for travelers

The ability to send messages to pagers, mobile
phones, PDAs

(No information was at the web site at press time.)

News from Macworld Expo

MacWindows covers X-platform news from Macworld
Expo. January 9, 2001 -- This week MacWindows will be
covering cross-platform news from Macworld Expo San
Francisco. (Non-Expo news is below.) Tomorrow we will report
any cross-platform implications of today's Steve Job keynote
speech. Jobs is expected to announce the release of Mac OS
9.1 and to announce a ship date for Mac OS X.

New X-platform peer-to-peer network solutions.
January 9, 2001 --Miramar, Connectix, and Thursby Systems
have all announced new versions or new cross-platform
peer-to-peer network file sharing products.

Here is a comparative summary of all peer-to-peer file
sharing networking products now available, including the new
announcements. Below the table are details on the new
product announcements.

Platform installed on

Macs access PCs?

PCs access Macs?

Share printers

Transport Protocol

File share protocol

Connectix DoubleTalk

Mac OS

Yes

No

Yes, one direction

TCP/IP

SMB

Miramar PC MacLAN

Windows

Yes

Yes

Yes, both directions (includes Ghostscript)

TCP/IP (now both directions) or AppleTalk

AFP

Thursby DAVE

Mac OS

Yes

Yes

Yes, both directions

TCP/IP

SMB

Thursby MacSOHO

Mac OS

Yes

Yes

No

NetBEUI

SMB

Thursby TSStalk

Windows

No

Yes

Yes, one direction

AppleTalk

AFP

PC MacLAN upgrade: 2-way, IP-based file/print sharing,
Win Me, OS X. January 9, 2001 -- Today, Miramar Systems
released PC
MacLAN 7.2.1 (US $199), the latest version of the
cross-platform AFP file sharing client/server for PCs. The
new version includes completely eliminates the need for
AppleTalk, as both the client and server can now run over
TCP/IP. PC MacLAN Bi-directional printer support. This
version adds support for Windows ME, as well as the
previously support Windows 95/98 and NT/2000. The new
version is the first to support Mac OS X. When installed on
a server, PC MacLAN can be used like the dedicated
AFP-over-IP server-based products, ExtremeZ-IP and
MacServerIP. PC MacLAN 7.2.1 includes

Version 7.2.1 also includes a suite of cross-platform
software:

Ghostscript, which enables Macs to print to
non-Postscript PC printers

PC Migrator, a utility to maintain file extensions
during transfer

A.K.A., which removes illegal characters from Mac
files

MacOpener by Data Viz, which enables PCs to read Mac
disks

Connectix announces DoubleTalk. January 9, 2001 --
Connectix has announced DoubleTalk
1.0 (US $99), a new peer-to-peer file and printer
sharing solution for Macs. Like Thursby's DAVE, DoubleTalk
in that it is a TCP/IP-based SMB (Server Message Block) file
sharing client for the Mac OS. However, unlike DAVE,
DoubleTalk does not allow Windows PCs to access files or
printers on Macs. DoubleTalk is similar to Thursby's TSStalk
in this respect, except TSStalk installs Apple networking on
a PC.

DoubleTalk also includes an "enhanced" print queue that
can be used to print to Mac laser printers up to 50 percent
faster, according to Connectix. Connectix is aiming
DoubleTalk at the small office/home office (SOHO)
market.

Thursby revs TSStalk to work on all current Win
releases January 9, 2001 -- Thursby Software announced a
new version of TSStalk
2.0 (US $149), which now runs on Windows
95/98/Me/NT/2000, installable from a single CD. TSStalk
enables a PC to access Mac files and PostScript printers
through the Network Neighborhood or "network places."
(TSStalk does not allow Macs to access the PCs.) TSStalk is
an AFP (Apple File Protocol) file sharing client for
Windows. (It does not allow Macs to access the PCs.)

FileMaker gives away Mobile version with Is Free
FileMaker Pro 5. January 9, 2001 -- Today, FileMaker,
Inc., announced that it is giving away a copy of
FileMaker Mobile Companion for Palm OS (plus shipping) for
people who purchase FileMaker Pro 5 and FileMaker Pro 5
upgrades for Macintosh and Windows. FileMaker Mobile lets
users transfer and synchronize data between FileMaker Pro 5
databases on PCs and Macs and Palm computers. The promotion
runs through March 16, 2001.

FileMaker will demonstrate Mobile and a preview of
FileMaker 4 for Mac OS X at its Macworld Expo booth, number
3827, all this week.

Update to our Virtual PC 4 report. January 9, 2001 -- We've
add a couple of more reader reports to our Virtual
PC 4 special report page. Allen Huffman finds VPC 4 "dog slow"
for certain games that run fine under VPC 3. (This is interesting in
light of Connectix' warning that VPC 4 is not a gaming solution.) Guy
Sanders is reports having a previously
reported problem of with IP addressing using Windows file and
print sharing.

In my search to find a Mac PC emulator that would boot
OS-9/x86, I purchased Blue Label. It works! The low-level floppy
booting hangs, but if I make a DOS boot floppy that then loads the
OS-9 system files from DOS and reboots the system it will work. It
also emulated graphics and networking under OS-9 just fine!

Virtual PC won't do this, and I don't think RealPC or
SoftWindows will either.

Officially, Virtual PC supports on Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 and
Red Hat Linux. FWB's RealPC support only Windows 95 and 98. (See our
Blue Label Power Emulator page for more
info on this emulator.)

How to move email from Outlook Express Mac
to PC. January 4, 2001 -- We had several responses to our January
2 question of how to move mail from Outlook Express Mac to PC.
Stephen Chiang looked into the issue going from PC to Mac with both
Outlook Express and Entourage:

According to Microsoft tech support, there is no way to
do it except to forward yourself the mail. If you forward as
attachments, they will move nicely to your folders with the
correct time and date stamp if I recall correctly.

However, Daniel Dy-Liacco found an AppleScript that will do the
job on the "Unofficial" Outlook
Express page (not affiliated with Microsoft), which contains over
200 AppleScripts related to email. The script for this solution is
called OEexporter.
It moves e-mail messages and contact lists from Outlook Express Mac
to Outlook Express (or Outlook) Windows.

Connectix to enter X-platform network market. January 4,
2001 -- Several readers pointed out that Connectix is running a
full-page ad in the February issue of MacAddict for an as-yet
unannounced product called DoubleTalk. The ad appears to be timed
with next week's Macworld Expo conference in San Francisco. According
to the ad, DoubleTalk is a Mac-PC file sharing solution. Chuck Wade
says:

It appears that this product is targeting the same market
as Thursby's MacSOHO
product, but includes integrated support for PC/Windows printers
in the Mac OS.

Connectix has not commented on the ad or the product.

Win2k PPPoE DSL Internet connection via AirPort. January 4,
2001 -- Johannes Kratz sent us step-by-step instructions on setting
up a wireless network using Apple AirPort Base Station with Windows
2000 and a Mindspring/EarthLink PPPoE DSL connection using an Orinoco
Gold LAN card. You can read it on our Cross-Platform
AirPort special report page. (For our other reports of AirPort
and DSL, click here.

Using X-platform wireless networks with a satellite Internet
link. January 4, 2001 -- A few months a go a reader asked for
some suggestions with linking a cross-platform wireless network to a
satellite Internet service. John Mendenhall just responded with a
detailed report on linking wireless network with the Lucent Orinoco
base station, Macs and PCs, using the Starband satellite system. The
report offers suggestions, some tips, and the pro's and con's of a
satellite Internet link. You can read the report on our Cross-Platform
AirPort special report page.

Update to Meeting Maker X-platform group calendar. January
4, 2001 -- MeetingMaker
6.0.8 is a minor bug-fix update for the cross-platform
scheduling/calendar program for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Sun
Solaris.

Pentium III faster than Pentium 4. January 4, 2001 -- A
ZDNet
story says that a new 1.3 GHz Pentium 4 processor is slower than
a 1 GHz Pentium III. (The New York Times recently ran a similar
story.)

Update to Virtual PC 4 Special Report: More from Connectix and
readers. January 2, 2001 -- We've reorganized and updated our
Virtual PC 4 Special Report.

Configuring Exchange to dial out to your ISP to retrieve mail.
January 2, 2001 -- Scott Herrera reponded to a question and
suggestion about configuing Exchange Server to dial out to an ISP
email server. Herrera tried getting the ISPs to use ETRN, as
suggested by another reader, but now prefers a piece of software
called VPOP3 from Paul Smith
Computer Services to run on the Exchange server. Herrara
describes it on our Cross-platform
Exchange Server page.

Outlook Express--moving messages from Mac to PC. January 2,
2001 -- Grant Thomas asks if there is a simple way of moving email
messages and folders from Outlook Express for Mac to PC. He says:

I have only been successful by going from O-Express on
Mac to Eudora on Mac and then transferring to Eudora on PC. There
must be a simpler way.

I have come across a similar problem which I tracked down
to ASIP leaving Windows clients logged on forever, even though it
was set to log out any idle client and another user (or even
sometime the same user) had logged in again from that machine.

The files were released when the older version of the user was
logged out through the admin programme.

I've been trying to use an external USB modem with
virtual PC, but I'm not having much luck. I have windows 98 loaded
on the VPC side, along with the modem drivers (zoom 2985), and the
modem is enabled via the VPC preferences window. windows detected
the new device (modem), asked for the drivers, and the setup went
smoothly. I then went to the Modem control panel, told it where to
find the setup files, what com port to use, and that when smoothly
also. however, when I tried to establish a dial-up connection, I
got an error saying that the modem was not responding.

Since USB modems don't come up as serial devices, I can't set
(in VPC preferences) the com port on the Mac side. Could this be
the problem? I would love to here of anyone else's experiences
with USB modems.

Ihave VPC 3.0.3 - since I've updated to 3.0.3, I've also had
problems with VPC not being able to open my Mac's serial
ports.